UNDER 
MARCHING  ORDERS 


*8   SU   03? 


ETHEL  DANIELS  HUBBARD 


■*£V 


GIFT  or 


IL 


•    1 


Mary  Pouter  Gamewell 


Under  Marching  Orders 

A  Story  of  Mary  Porter  Gamewell 


ETHEL  DANIELS  HUBBARD 


NEW  YORK 

YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  CANADA 

1909 


Copyright,  1909,  by 

Young  People's  Missionary  Movement 

op  the  United  States  and  Canada 


TO  THE  CHINESE  GIRLS 

STUDENTS  IN 

THE  MARY  PORTER  GAMEWELL  SCHOOL 

IN  PEKING 

WHO  LEARN  THERE  THE  IDEAL  OF 

CHRISTIAN  WOMANHOOD 

AND  WHO  PURPOSE  TO  WORK  IT  OUT 

IN  DAILY  LIVING 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED 


iii 


381234 


CONTENTS 


Chapter                                                                         page 
Preface ix 

I    Into  a  Walled  City 1 

II    A  Girl  in  the  Making 17 

III  Bound  or  Unbound? 31 

IV  In  a  Peking  Cart 49 

V    The  Turning  of  the  Road 67 

VI     A  Chinese  Mob 81 

VII    A    Chinese    Sunday    School    and    a    Chinese 

Church 99 

VIII     The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle Ill 

IX    Boxers   and   Barricades 131 

X    Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese 153 

XI    The  Coming  of  the  Allies 173 

XII    A  New  World 193 

Index 213 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mary  Porter  Game  well Frontispiece 

Typical  Chinese  Donkey  with  Driver Page  5 

Mary   Porter's   Journey   from   San    Francisco 

to   Peking "  7 

Map  Showing  Location  of  Tientsin  and  Peking.  "  9 

Outer  Wall  of  Peking "  13 

Hata  Gate "  13 

Mary  Porter  at  Twelve  Years  of  Age "  21 

Women  with  the  Scoop  Bonnets "  29 

Old  Prison  Hospital,  Arsenal  Island "  29 

Mrs.  Wang  on  Wheelbarrow "  41 

Peking  Carts  on  Rough  Roads "  53 

River  Ferry "  53 

Journey  from  Peking  to  An-chia-chuang "  61 

Frank  D.  Gamewell  and  Mary  Porter  at  the 

Time  of  Marriage "  73 

Trackers  on  the  Yang-tzu "  77 

Sedan-chair "  93 

Mrs.  Gamewell  and  Chinese  Bible  Women "  103 

Asbury    Church,    Peking,    before    the    Boxer 

Uprising "  109 

Peking,  a  City  within  a  City "  115 

Empress  Dowager "  123 

A  Boxer m  127 

Boxer  Placard  used  to  Incite  Feeling  against 

Foreigners "  127 

Scenes  in  the  Methodist  Compound "  135 

Barbed  Wire  in  Front  of  Asbury  Church — Captain  Hall 
and  the  Key — The  Auditorium  as  a  Storehouse — On 
Guard 

Diagram,  Line  of  March  from  the  Methodist 

Compound  to  the  British  Legation "  149 

Turning  into  Legation  Street  from  Hata  Men 

reet "  151 

vii 


viii  Illustrations 

British  Legation,  Peking Page  157 

Gate  to  British  Legation,  Showing  Fortifica- 
tion and  Dry  Canal "  157 

Dr.  Game  well  and  Fortification  Staff "  169 

Sand-bag  Fortification "  169 

Ruins  of  the  Hanlin  Library "  177 

Chinese  Watching  a  Fire  in  the  British  Le- 
gation   f!  177 

House  in  British  Legation,  Showing  Bombard- 
ment by  Chinese "  181 

International  Gun,  "Betsey" "  181 

Last  Message  from  Dr.  Gamewell  before  the 

Siege "  185 

First  News  of  the  Relief "  185 

Joy  at  the  Coming  of  the  Allies "  189 

Troops  Arrive  in  Front  of  the  Bell  Tower "  189 

The  Mary  Porter  Gamewell  School  for  Girls, 

Peking. "  207 

Girls  of  the  Mary  Porter  Gamewell  School "  207 


PREFACE 

To  Girls  and  Boys  Who  Honor  Their  Flag 

This  morning  there  was  a  patriotic  service 
in  the  town  where  I  live,  at  which  hundreds 
of  children  sang  and  waved  their  flags.  As 
they  were  singing  a  flag  song,  I  wished  that 
they  would  cheer  the  old  dragon  flag  of  China, 
and  more  than  all  the  flags  of  all  the  nations, 
would  I  have  them  cheer  the  Church  flag, 
which  bears  the  sign  of  the  cross. 

If ,  as  a  good  citizen,  you  would  follow  your 
country's  flag  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  if 
honor  called  you,  would  you  not  just  as 
promptly  follow  the  Christian  flag  anywhere 
it  might  lead?  If  you  follow  a  flag,  you  put 
yourself  " under  marching  orders,' '  and 
where  the  commander  says  go,  the  soldier 
directs  his  steps. 

There  is  in  this  book  the  story  of  a  girl 
who  loved  the  stars  and  stripes  and  loved 
them  as  long  as  she  lived,  even  though  she 
spent  more  than  half  her  days  under  the 
national  standard  of  China,  and  came  to  re- 


x  Preface 

spect  the  coils  of  the  dragon  on  its  yellow 
field.  But  the  flag  of  the  cross  was  hoisted 
above  the  stars  and  stripes  on  the  battleship 
of  her  life.  Do  you  care  to  know  how  she 
followed  the  flag,  and  what  adventures  she 
met  on  the  way!  If  so,  you  may  like  to  read 
this  narrative  and  become  acquainted  with  a 
fellow  soldier.  Because  she  was  an  honorable 
soldier,  who  came  through  the  fight  with 
her  colors  flying,  I  have  written  her  life  for 
you  to  read. 

But  before  you  pass  beyond  this  page,  will 
you  help  me  pay  respects  to  some  of  the  men 
and  women  without  whom  I  could  not  have 
written  this  book?  By  and  by,  as  you  read 
the  last  chapters,  you  yourselves  will  feel  like 
saluting  the  man  who,  as  much  as  any  other, 
helped  to  save  the  lives  of  hundreds  of 
foreigners  and  thousands  of  Chinese  in  the 
siege  of  Peking.  He  was  the  husband  of 
Mary  Porter  Gamewell,  and  it  is  because  he 
was  willing  to  answer  questions  and  lend 
diaries  and  scrap-books,  that  the  material  for 
this  story  could  be  gathered.  A  sister  of 
Mary  Porter  Gamewell,  Mrs.  Charles  D. 
Glass,  told  me  stories  for  a  whole  day,  and 
some  of  these  stories  you  will  find  as  you 


Preface  xi 

read.  Then  there  were  three  people,  two  of 
whom  were  in  China  with  Mary  Porter  Game- 
well,  and  they  drew  from  their  memories  and 
gave  me  incidents  which  are  woven  into  the 
text  of  the  book.  The  names  of  these  are: 
Miss  Clara  M.  Cushman,  Mrs.  Miranda 
Croucher  Packard,  and  Miss  Elizabeth  C. 
Northup.  I  am  also  grateful  to  a  former 
teacher  of  mine  in  Wellesley  College,  Miss 
Sophie  Jewett,  who  kindly  gave  some  sugges- 
tions relating  to  the  language  of  my  manu- 
script. And  there  is  yet  another,  Mr.  Ealph 
E.  Diffendorfer,  whom  I  am  especially  glad 
to  have  you  know,  because  it  was  he  who 
helped  me  to  realize  the  interest  that  boys 
and  girls  have  in  tales  of  adventure  and 
heroism. 

There  are  two  books  which  were  nearly  al- 
ways on  my  desk  as  I  wrote.  Later  on,  if 
you  should  care  to  read  again  about  Mary 
Porter  Gamewell,  or  to  learn  all  about  the 
siege  of  Peking,  I  advise  you  to  hunt  up  Dr. 
Tuttle's  Life  of  Mary  Porter  Gamewell 
and  two  bulky  red  volumes  galled  China 
in  Convulsion,  written  by  Dr.  Arthur  H. 
Smith. 

And  now  turn  the  leaves  and  read,  if  you 


xii  Preface 

will,  the  story  of  a  girl  who  lived  under  three 
flags,  and  did  honor  to  them  all,  because 
above  her  own  life  waved  triumphantly  the 
red,  white,  and  blue  flag  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

Ethel  Daniels  Hubbard. 
Wellesley,  Mass.,  May  31, 1909. 


INTO  A  WALLED  CITY 


I 

INTO  A  WALLED  CITY 

"Too  low  they  build 
Who  build  beneath  the  stars." 

It  was  a  twelve-mile  ride  and  the  donkeys ' 
moods  and  legs  were  uncertain.  In  the  mind 
of  the  donkey  there  is  no  room  for  sympathy, 
but  rather  the  grim  humor  which  loves  the 
practical  joke  for  its  own  sake  without  mercy 
for  the  victim.  The  perverse  animal  stands 
by  in  mocking  silence  when  his  pranks  have 
tortured  his  rider  into  despair.  There  is  no 
sense  of  responsibility  in  his  mental  make-up. 

Thus  at  the  outset  of  the  ride,  knowing  the 
distance  and  the  donkey,  one  knew  not 
whether  to  laugh  or  cry.  Then  again  there 
were  memories  that  haunted,  brought  out  by 
the  contrast  between  the  United  States  of 
America  and  China  of  the  Far  East.  Con- 
sequently the  five  riders  looked  into  one  an- 
other's eyes,  whenever  there  was  equilibrium 
sufficient  to  look  into  anything,  and  ques- 
tioned. 

Meanwhile,  the  donkeys  boldly  demanded 


4  Under  Marching  Orders 

an  undue  share  of  attention,  and  their  de- 
mand was  met  without  hesitation.  Eiding 
astride  one  cantankerous  little  beast  was  an 
American  girl.  She  was  slender  and  wiry, 
and  her  blue  eyes  fairly  shone  with  deter- 
mination to  stick  to  the  back  of  her  donkey  at 
all  hazards.  She  had  ridden  frisky  horses 
before  this,  and  had  never  known  fear. 
Should  a  humble  Chinese  donkey  bring  her 
to  terms  1  But  despite  her  intention  and  her 
skill  in  horsemanship,  the  donkey  had  his 
way,  as  he  always  will,  and  many  times  she 
was  compelled  to  alight  hastily  and  inglo- 
riously  on  the  ground.     ; 

Her  saddle  was  anything  but  American, 
Mexican,  or  comfortable.  It  was  simply  a 
stuffed  pack  of  uncertain  shape,  with  stir- 
rups which  were  hung  on  ropes  across  the 
pack,  and  which  usually  dangled  just  out  of 
reach  at  the  sides.  It  was  a  task  worthy  a 
professional  acrobat  to  keep  one  's  balance  on 
a  Chinese  saddle  while  riding  over  Chinese 
roads.  These  roads  were  paved  with  huge 
stones  worn  into  ruts  nearly  a  foot  deep  by 
the  heavy  wheelbarrows  which  had  bumped 
and  thumped  over  them  for  years — yes,  for 
centuries. 


Into  a  Walled  City  5 

The  face  of  the  girl  was  alive  with  fun  in 
the  rare  moments  when  the  donkey  gave  her 
a  chance  to  appreciate  the  experiences  of  her 
companions.  A  sudden  exclamation  from 
behind  called  her  attention  to  a  moving  pic- 
ture of  dramatic  interest.  The  rider  was 
trying  to  maintain  a  precarious  position  on 
the  sloping  back  of  his  donkey,  which  was 
kicking  out  vigorously.  Just  then  the  driver, 
who  walked  by  the  side,  threw  himself  over 
the  flying  heels  of  the  beast  and  cast  both 
arms  about  his  body  in  the  effort  to  hold  him 
down  to  earth.  By  way  of  climax,  the  dig- 
nified escort  was  presently  seen  sailing  out 
over  the  head  of  his  donkey,  umbrella  in  hand 
and  opened  wide,  the  donkey  for  the  instant 
standing  head  down  and  heels  in  the  air. 

Throughout,  it  was  a  close  struggle  between 
will  of  beast  and  will  of  man,  and  the  girl  had 
her  full  share  of  battle.  In  the  end,  the  little 
gray  beasts  of  China  bore  their  unwonted 
burdens  from  the  "West,  all,  or  nearly  all,  the 
twelve  miles  from  T'ung-chou  to  Peking.  At 
last,  in  the  dusty  shadows  of  the  dusty  wall 
of  dusty  Peking,  the  travelers  dismounted  the 
donkeys  and  mounted — the  Peking  carts! 

The  girl  with  the  undaunted  look  in  her 


6  Under  Marching  Orders 

eyes  had  traveled  many  a  Chinese  li,1  many 
an  ocean  league,  and  many  a  good  American 
mile  since  she  left  her  home  in  Iowa  six 
months  before.  In  the  country,  in  childhood, 
haven't  you  often  climbed  the  near-by  hill 
eager  to  see  what  is  just  beyond!  And 
haven't  you  found  that  there  is  always  an- 
other "just  beyond"?  You  would  fain  press 
on  and  on  until  you  come  to  the  very  end  of 
the  earth,  to  that  mysterious  "  jumping-off 
place"  which,  like  the  North  Pole,  seems 
very  difficult  of  discovery.  So  it  was 
with  the  girl.  There  was  a  voice  in  her  ears 
which  said,  "Come,"  and  there  was  some- 
thing deep  down  in  her  soul  which  said, 
"Go."  The  soul  of  man  must  be  made  for 
movement,  for  exploration,  because  it  is  sure 
to  answer  that  summons  to  climb  yet  another 
hill  and  get  the  broader  view.  Thus  the  girl 
was  lured  out  from  the  home  town  and  out 
from  the  homeland  across  the  sea  to  China. 
All  told,  it  had  been  a  wonderful  journey. 
The  girPs  bright  eyes  and  quick  sense  of  fun 
had  helped  her  to  see  and  enjoy,  as  well  as 
to  make  the  best  of  trying  situations.  She 
was  alive  with  interest  when  the  ship  an- 

i  A  li  is  about  three  eighths   of  a  mile. 


—  •  —.  ■,',  ■   — 


W> 


^ 


From  Yokohama  - 
Honolulu  and* 

'■[■■■■\rM'^W^' -*'•■•  San  Francisco 
^^   >    \  «■ —  <* 


Mary  Porter's  Journey  from  San  Francisco  to  Peking 

7 


8  Under  Marching  Orders 

cliored  in  Yokohama  Bay.  She  had  read  the 
papers  and  kept  pace  with  the  times,  and  she 
knew  that  little  Japan  was  making  history 
fast.  When  they  sailed  throngh  the  lovely 
Inland  Sea,  she  realized  that  Japan  had 
beauty  of  nature  on  her  side  to  help  her  men 
and  women  become  trne  and  strong  and  loyal 
to  the  empire.  Eleven  days  later  she  landed 
in  China,  after  the  six  solid  weeks  on  ship- 
hoard.  Even  in  those  days  Shanghai,  the 
port,  was  a  bustling  city  threatening  to  be- 
come a  rival  on  the  other  side  of  the  world  to 
New  York.  The  girl,  however,  could  not  and 
cared  not  to  linger  in  Shanghai,  for  she  was 
bound  for  the  capital  city  of  the  empire — 
mighty,  mysterious  Peking.  With  character- 
istic eagerness  she  longed  to  be  off  and  away 
on  the  journey  north. 

In  1871  America  did  not  know  as  much 
about  China  as  she  knows  to-day,  and  there 
had  been  no  one  in  the  home  country  to  tell 
the  girl  traveler  that  the  last  vessel  sailed 
north  from  Shanghai  before  the  cold  of 
winter  began.  Peking  is  a  good  one  hundred 
miles  from  the  coast,  and  Tientsin  is  its  port. 
But  Tientsin  lies  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
muddy  Pei  Ho  (North  River),  some  twenty- 


Map   Showing  Location  of  Tientsin  and  Peking 

Distance,  Taku  to  Tientsin,  27  Miles 
Distance,  Tientsin  to  Peking,  79  Miles 


Into  a  Walled  City  9 

five  miles  from  the  sea,  and  the  river  freezes 
in  cold  weather.  So,  in  the  days  before  the 
railroad  reached  China,  Peking  was  a  goal 
not  easily  reached  from  the  coast  during  the 
winter  season.  The  girl  learned  cheerfully 
to  accept  the  unexpected,  and  sailed  away  in 
the  coast  steamer  to  another  city,  Foochow, 
where  she  remained  until  the  spring  thaw 
opened  navigation. 

There  are  some  rough,  tumbling  waters 
between  Shanghai  and  Tientsin,  and  the 
stoutest  of  travelers  is  usually  brought  low. 
Even  nature  in  China  has  its  streaks  of  per- 
versity. The  ship  anchors  on  the  ocean  side 
of  the  sandbar  which  blocks  the  entrance  to 
the  crooked  Pei  Ho.  The  wind  is  then  likely 
to  blow  the  water  off  the  bar,  until  there  is 
scarcely  enough  left  to  float  an  Indian  canoe. 
The  poor  people  at  the  mercy  of  the  short, 
choppy  waves  think  appreciatively  of  the 
"man  who  was  so  seasick  that  he  feared  he 
would  die,  and  afterward  was  only  afraid  he 
would  not  die. '  \  By  and  by,  the  captain,  who 
is  a  man  of  action,  can  brook  delay  no  longer, 
and  over  the  bar  the  steamer  goes,  scraping 
and  grinding  through  the  sands  like  a  plow 
through  the  stubborn  soil  of  New  England. 


10         Under  Marching  Orders 

In  all  these  ways  the  girl  was  gathering  ex- 
perience for  her  storehouse  of  wisdom. 

From  Tientsin  up  to  T'ung-chou,  the  end 
of  navigation,  the  girl  had  her  first  expe- 
rience in  a  Chinese  house-boat.  She  had 
often  wondered  what  these  strange  craft 
were  like,  but  she  had  never  dreamed  that 
there  could  be  anywhere  in  one  spot  such 
a  jam  of  boats  and  such  a  swarm  of  people. 
What  yelling  and  pushing  and  shouting 
there  was  before  they  escaped  from  the 
wedge  of  boats!  At  last  the  wind  filled 
the  sails  and  they  were  off.  At  night  they 
tied  to  the  bank,  and  sailed  away  in  the  gray 
light  of  morning. 

The  river  bed  is  in  some  places  higher 
than  the  surrounding  country,  and  when  the 
floods  come  of  course  the  water  breaks 
through  the  banks,  which  are  not  firm  and 
strong  and  high  like  the  Holland  dikes.  It 
gives  the  house-boats  a  fine  chance  to  keep 
to  a  straight  course  instead  of  following  the 
twisting  curves  of  the  river.  Any  sensible 
captain  would  choose  to  send  his  ship  in  a 
straight  line  when  possible.  Sometimes  they 
were  carried  over  whole  fields  of  kaoliang, 
or  broom-corn,  which  stood  at  least  ten  feet 


Into  a  Walled  City  11 

high.  Little  villages  built  on  slightly  higher 
land  were  veritable  islands.  It  was  a  mirage 
experience,  and  the  girl  could  hardly  credit 
her  senses.  Chinese  facts  are  often  stranger 
than  fairy  tales,  and  nature  seems  to  do  her 
full  part. 

Another  Chinese  puzzle  was  the  famous 
pontoon  bridge,  or  Bridge  of  Boats.  How 
should  they  find  a  way  through?  It  was 
easy,  however,  for  a  clumsy  barge  dropped 
out  of  its  place  in  the  line,  and  the  waiting 
boats  filed  through  this  opening.  The  girl 
watched  with  interest  the  workings  of  this 
strange  type  of  drawbridge  and  compared 
it  with  the  government  bridge  which  con- 
nected her  own  home  town  with  the  opposite 
shore  of  the  broad  Mississippi.  The  two 
bridges  were  another  instance  of  the  differ- 
ence between  slow-moving,  bulky  China  and 
wide-awake,  alert  America. 

She  was  just  beginning  to  learn  another 
lesson — a  lesson  taught  by  painful  degrees 
in  the  days  and  years  to  come  in  China.  To 
be  willing  to  become  a  source  of  unfailing 
amusement  to  her  fellow  men  was  not  such 
an  easy  task  as  one  might  think.  Along  the 
edges  of  the  break  in  the  bridge  hovered  a 


12  Under  Marching  Orders 

motley  throng  of  foot-passengers.  They  ob- 
jected not  at  all  to  the  delay  in  their  journey, 
for  what  a  rare  chance  to  stare  at  the  queer- 
looking  foreigners  in  the  house-boat!  The 
girl  decided  that  they  looked  upon  the  group 
of  Americans  in  much  the  same  mood  as  they 
would  view  a  monkey  show  or  an  exhibition 
of  performing  bears. 

So,  through  experiences,  some  as  new  as 
the  daylight,  and  others  as  old  as  the  human 
race,  the  girl  came  toward  the  end  of  her 
journey.  Out  on  the  plains,  on  the  back  of 
the  donkey,  she  had  her  first  view  of  the  wall 
of  Peking.  It  seemed  literally  to  reach  to 
the  sky,  and  to  shut  out  everything — every- 
thing except  the  dust.  She  had  read  of  the 
walled  cities  of  the  ancient  world,  but  only 
seeing  is  believing  and  understanding.  There 
it  stood,  fifty  feet  above  the  plains,  grim  and 
forbidding  as  only  a  wall  can  be.  The  sun 
was  already  hidden  by  the  wall,  and  the 
world  was  left  in  gloom  before  its  time. 

It  was  just  that  funny  donkey  ride  which 
saved  the  girl  from  an  awful  attack  of  home- 
sickness. '  l  The  long,  long  thoughts ' '  of  home 
were  vigorously  pushed  out  by  the  perform- 
ances of  the  donkey,  which  compelled  atten- 


Outer  Wall  of  Pektxg 


Hata  Gate 


Into  a  Walled  City  13 

tion.  Thus  for  once  the  contrary  little  beast 
served  as  a  benefactor,  though  of  course  he 
knew  it  not.  Had  he  known,  he  would  have 
changed  his  tactics. 

Everywhere  and  always  "discretion  is  the 
better  part  of  valor,"  and  on  this  principle 
it  is  wise  for  the  foreigner  to  enter  a  Chinese 
city  as  quietly  as  possible.  Thus,  outside 
the  east  gate  of  Peking  the  travelers  ex- 
changed the  donkeys  for  the  Peking  carts. 
It  seemed  to  the  girl  as  if  she  were  climbing 
into  a  dog  kennel  on  wheels  as  she  mounted 
for  the  first  time  one  of  these  carts.  Pres- 
ently they  were  off,  each  cart  swaying  from 
side  to  side  like  a  plunging  boat  in  the  surf. 
First  one  wheel,  then  the  other  made  a  sharp 
descent  into  the  ruts  worn  in  the  stones,  so 
that  it  took  some  mental  equilibrium  to  keep 
one's  head  from  violent  contact  with  the  sides 
of  the  cart. 

It  was  almost  dusk,  and  the  great  iron- 
bound  gate  was  soon  to  close.  Along  the 
street  the  Chinese  rushed  and  scrambled  to 
escape  from  the  city  while  yet  there  was  time. 
Others  lined  up  on  either  side  to  watch  the 
exciting  dash  for  the  gate.  It  was  like i run- 
ning for  the  last  train  home.    Like  the  safe 


14         Under  Marching  Orders 

with  the  time-lock,  the  gate  is  not  opened 
until  sunrise  when  once  it  is  closed  and 
locked.  Those  who  are  out  can  in  no  wise  get 
in,  and  those  who  are  in  cannot  by  hook  or 
crook  get  out.  The  traveler  who  approaches 
the  city  on  horseback,  leaving  his  baggage 
and  bedding  to  follow  in  the  tardy  cart, 
passes  through  the  gate  himself,  but  the 
chances  are  the  cart  is  left  outside.  In  this 
case  there  is  no  remedy  for  a  sleepless  night, 
since  in  China  the  traveler  usually  supplies 
his  own  bedding  or  does  without. 

Meanwhile  the  carts  turned  from  the  stone 
road  into  a  narrow,  unpaved  street.  The 
thumping  and  bumping  ceased  for  a  time  and 
the  girl  looked  out  of  the  opening  at  the 
stretch  of  street  ahead.  As  far  as  she  could 
see  were  dusty,  gray  brick  walls  on  either 
side,  with  not  a  tree  growing  anywhere  in 
sight.  The  street  was  probably  not  much 
wider  than  her  own  room  at  home.  Here 
and  there  in  the  walls  were  heavy  floors,  all 
tightly  closed.  Evidently  there  were  houses 
behind  the  walls,  though  not  even  a  scrap 
of  roof  was  visible  from  the  street.  Walls, 
walls  everywhere,  and  walls  within  walls! 
A  walled  empire,  walled  cities,  and  walled 


Into  a  Walled  City  15 

houses!  Perhaps  a  walled  people?  the  girl 
questioned.  Just  then  the  carts  came  to  a 
sudden,  jerky  stop.  A  door  swung  open,  and 
the  girl's  journey  was  at  an  end.  This  was 
home. 

There  had  been  a  star  in  her  heavens, 
which,  like  the  guiding  star  of  old,  had  lured 
her  from  her  home  in  the  West  to  the  walled 
house  in  Peking.  Why  had  she  cornel  The 
Chinese  wondered — some  of  her  friends  at 
home  wondered — but  she  herself  never  won- 
dered.   She  knew. 


A  GIRL  IN  THE  MAKING 


17 


n 

A  GIEL  IN  THE  MAKING 

"What  man  has  dreamed,  that  man  must  do." 

In  the  woods  which  bordered  upon  the 
clearing,  two  fearless  children  roamed  at 
will.  The  younger  of  the  two  was  a  slight, 
wiry  little  figure  with  a  mass  of  golden  curls 
and  big  blue  eyes.  They  had  read  in  their 
fairy  books  that  sometimes  real  babies  lived 
in  the  hollow  trunks  of  great  forest  trees. 
So  every  day  they  searched  in  every  hollow 
trunk,  peering  deep  down  to  find  the  hidden 
treasure.  Their  mother  had  often  to  leave 
the  house  in  the  clearing  and  hunt  anxiously 
for  the  little  girls,  who,  before  she  had  time 
to  miss  them,  were  off  on  their  tour  of  dis- 
covery. There  were  wild  beasts  not  far 
away,  and  dangerous  snakes,  but  of  these  the 
children  took  no  heed.  Their  fearlessness 
was  their  protection,  and  they  played  in 
safety  under  the  shiny  hemlock  trees  on  the 
slopes  of  the  Alleghanies. 

But  the  years  hastened  on,  and  the  happy 
hunting-ground  of  the  children  was  changed. 

19 


20         Under  Marching  Orders 

It  was  no  longer  the  mysterious  forest,  but 
a  big,  gray  house  in  the  center  of  a  busy, 
western  town.  The  good  times  continued 
just  the  same,  for  the  house  was  large  and 
roomy,  and  the  family  large-hearted  and  hos- 
pitable. The  house  faced  directly  upon  an 
open  common,  and  not  far  away  was  the 
Court-house  Square.  Tall  trees  marked  their 
shadows  upon  the  green  grass  of  the  com- 
mon opposite.  There  was  life  and  stir  in  the 
streets  of  the  town,  and  on  the  great  river 
sturdy  steamboats  towed  the  heavy  barges, 
which  carried  flour,  grain,  and  other  freight. 
As  to  a  magnet  were  drawn  to  this  town  on 
the  Mississippi  grain  from  the  fields,  ores 
from  the  mines,  and  timber  from  the  forests, 
while  from  it  manufactured  products  of 
many  kinds  were  sent  to  all  parts  of  the 
nation. 

Across  the  broad  river  to  its  eastern  shore, 
the  Chicago  and  Eock  Island  Eailroad  had 
built  a  huge  drawbridge,  the  first  bridge 
across  the  Mississippi.  By  and  by,  as  war 
became  inevitable,  Davenport,  because  it  was 
in  the  center  of  things  north  and  south  and 
east  and  west,  was  chosen  as  a  mustering-in 
place  for  Iowa  soldiers.    North  and  east  of 


Mary  Porter  at  Twelve  Years  of  Age 


A  Girl  in  the  Making  21 

the  town  there  sprang  up  as  in  a  night  the 
tents  and  barracks  of  "Camp  McClellan," 
"Camp  Roberts,"  "Camp  Hendershott, ' ' 
and  others.  On  Rock  Island,  where  the  gov- 
ernment arsenal  now  stands,  were  built  the 
large  wooden  buildings  in  which  at  one 
time  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  Confederate 
soldiers  were  imprisoned.  Exciting  tales 
drifted  through  the  town,  tales  of  how  the 
prisoners  plotted  to  escape,  planning  to 
walk  across  the  river  on  the  ice  to  the  main- 
land and  thus  away  to  freedom,  or  perchance 
back  again  to  battle. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  things  happened  in 
the  gray  house  in  the  square ;  things  funny, 
sad,  and  eventful,  and  the  heart  of  them  all 
was  the  same  merry  dreamer  of  a  girl  who 
followed  fearlessly  into  the  woods,  the  girl 
who  always  followed  fearlessly  wherever 
there  was  the  call  to  go.  Her  hair  was 
still  curly  and  golden,  though  in  the  sunlight 
it  had  a  tinge  of  red.  Sometimes  her  eyes 
positively  danced  with  mischief,  and  some- 
times they  had  a  quiet,  far-away  look,  as  if 
she  were  seeing  into  the  future.  She  was, 
known  as  the  girl  who  could  always  find  a 
way  out  of  every  difficulty,  believing  with  all 


2£  Under  Marching  Orders 

her  might  the  old  proverb,  "  Where  there  is 
a  will,  there  is  a  way." 

From  the  day  when  the  Southern  guns 
fired  upon  Fort  Sumter  until  the  day  when 
the  flags  hung  at  half-mast  because  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  dead,  Mary  Porter  lived  in  the 
great  deeds  of  the  war.  With  her  mother  and 
the  other  children  she  drove  out  to  camp  and 
watched  the  military  drill,  listening  eagerly 
to  the  beat  of  the  drum,  and  learning  the 
bugle  calls  by  heart.  There  she  heard  those 
songs  which  made  the  Southern  soldiers  say, 
after  the  war  was  over,  that  it  was  the  songs 
of  the  men  in  blue  that  won  the  war.  She 
knew  how  "  Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  the  boys 
are  marching"  and  "Bally  round  the  flag" 
could  fire  the  soul  so  that  one  would  dare 
anything  and  fear  nothing.  Later  on,  when 
the  broken  ranks  of  the  regiments  came 
marching  back  to  Davenport,  her  clear, 
soprano  voice  sang  the  brave,  sad  songs, 
"Tenting  to-night  on  the  old  camp  ground," 
"The  vacant  chair,"  and  others  like  these 
born  out  of  the  experience  of  war. 

Oftentimes  the  gray  house  opened  its  doors 
to  the  womenfolk  who  came  from  a  distance 
to  be  near  their  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers 


A  Girl  in  the  Making  23 

who  were  soon  to  be  ordered  out  of  camp  to 
the  front.  Then  again  the  busy  mother  of 
the  family  welcomed  other  active  women  of 
the  town,  and  together  they  planned  diet 
kitchens  and  hospital  supplies  for  the  sol- 
diers. A  vast  deal  of  wisdom  was  stored  in 
those  heads  which  wore  the  big  scoop  bon- 
nets, and  bright  were  the  eyes  which  looked 
out  from  under  the  broad  brims.  As  the  war 
drew  near  its  close,  these  same  women 
planned  a  home  for  orphaned  children  of  the 
soldiers  who  had  died  for  their  country, 
and  located  this  home  in  Davenport. 

But  there  were  yet  other  doings  in  the 
house  in  the  square.  Many  a  night  a  bevy  of 
schoolgirls  sought  refuge  there  when  their 
pranks  had  kept  them  so  late  after  school  that 
it  was  too  dark  for  them  to  go  to  their  own 
homes.  Mary  Porter,  Mattie  Scott,  Cora 
Parkhurst,  and  Mary  Sully  were  boon  com- 
panions, sharing  alike  in  glory  and  disgrace. 
They  had  entered  into  a  solemn  compact 
whereby  if  one  missed  all  would  miss,  and  if 
one  had  to  stay  after  school  all  would  stay. 
So  well  known  was  their  confederacy,  that 
whenever  there  was  sign  of  disturbance  in 
the    schoolroom,    without    looking    up,    the 


24         Under  Marching  Orders 

teacher  would  call  the  names  of  the  four 
girls. 

It  was  one  night  around  the  fire  in  the 
Porter  house  that  the  famous  high  school 
escapade  was  recounted  in  glowing  terms. 
The  high  school  had  outgrown  its  quarters 
in  the  building  with  the  graded  schools,  and 
the  town  had  purchased  for  its  use  a  large, 
half-built  church.  The  rooms  down-stairs 
were  used  for  the  school,  while  overhead, 
the  unfinished  auditorium  served  as  gym- 
nasium, recess-hall,  and  general  rallying- 
place  of  the  boys  and  girls  between  sessions. 
Ropes  with  rings  attached  hung  from  the 
ceiling,  a  suggestion  of  gymnastic  apparatus. 
On  the  wall,  a  makeshift  ladder,  made  of 
strips  of  board  nailed  across  between  the 
studding,  had  been  left  by  the  workmen.  It 
was  the  particular  joy  of  the  upper-class 
girls  to  climb  this  ladder  and  perch  on  the 
beams  above  to  eat  their  luncheons. 

One  day  a  brilliant  idea  entered  the  heads 
of  the  younger  girls  and  was  acted  upon  at 
once.  Beginning,  of  course,  at  the  top,  they 
pulled  off  the  thin  strips  of  board  until  not  a 
splinter  of  the  ladder  was  left.  Then  they 
returned  to  the  schoolroom  with  as  much  un- 


A  Girl  in  the  Making  25 

concern  as  they  could  assume.  Naturally 
the  teacher  inquired  for  the  missing  girls. 
' '  They  were  up  there  when  we  came  down, ' ' 
replied  one  of  the  four.  The  adventure  ended 
merrily  as  it  began.  The  helpless  girls  on 
the  beams  did  not  want  the  principal  to  know 
of  their  ignominious  plight,  and  the  teacher 
must  put  her  wits  to  work  to  devise  a  way  of 
getting  them  down.  By  dint  of  repeated 
effort  she  threw  the  gymnastic  ropes  within 
their  reach.  Grasping  these,  and  swinging 
out  into  the  air,  one  by  one  they  reached  the 
floor. 

Mary  Porter  finished  her  sophomore  year 
in  high  school  when  the  armies  of  the  North 
and  South  had  disbanded  and  the  tired  men 
had  scattered  to  their  homes.  The  nation's 
war  was  over,  but  the  fighting  days  of  her 
life  had  just  begun.  The  bugle-call  sounded 
in  her  ears,  and  like  a  soldier  she  fell  in  line. 
In  the  deserted  barracks  of  Camp  Eoberts  the 
orphan  children  had  been  assembled  in 
school.  Teachers  were  urgently  in  demand, 
and  there  was  a  girl  in  Davenport  ready  to 
go  wherever  she  was  sure  she  was  needed. 
This  girl  found  out  something  during  the 
year  with  the  children,  something  which  she 


26         Under  Marching  Orders 

had  hitherto  suspected,  that  you  really  have 
the  best  kind  of  a  time  when  you  are  doing 
things  for  other  people.  The  notes  of  the 
bugle  were  growing  clearer,  and  by  and  by 
she  would  know  exactly  their  meaning. 

Something  else  had  taken  place  in  her  life, 
even  before  that  merry  freshman  year  in 
high  school.  It  was  a  real  thing,  though  she 
did  not  talk  much  about  it  at  the  time  or 
afterwards.  Those  were  great  days  for  boys 
and  girls  to  be  alive ;  days  when  heroes  were 
on  every  side,  even  where  one  did  not  dream 
of  finding  them.  Deeds  of  daring  and  sacri- 
fice in  war  were  told  daily  by  the  fireside. 
Men  like  Abraham  Lincoln,  Eobert  E.  Lee, 
Ulysses  S.  Grant,  and  William  T.  Sherman 
stirred  the  blood  and  put  iron  in  the  will. 
And  yet  the  girl  knew  that  there  was  a  Hero 
greater  than  these,  even  he  whose  courage 
was  back  of  the  war  generals,  and  whose  love 
was  in  her  very  own  soul.  He  should  be  her 
Commander  General,  and  his  marching  or- 
ders she  would  gladly  and  instantly  obey. 
During  that  same  year,  when  she  was  fifteen 
years  of  age,  she  joined  the  church  in  her 
town,  a  willing  recruit  for  service  in  a  world- 
wide army. 


A  Girl,  in  the  Making  27 

After  teaching  one  year,  Mary  Porter  went 
back  to  high  school,  and  doing  two  years' 
work  in  one,  graduated  with  her  own  class. 
It  was  a  hard,  forced  march,  and  the  girl- 
soldier  almost  fell  by  the  way.  Then  she 
learned  what  it  meant  to  pray  to  God,  and 
to  depend  upon  his  help.  Long  years  after, 
her  letters  told  of  the  battle  fought  in  this 
senior  year.  "I  used  to  ask  God  to  help  me 
with  geometry,  Latin,  chemistry,  and  every- 
thing in  which  I  was  likely  to  stagger  from 
overwork.  I  have  sat  down  at  my  desk  so 
weary  and  discouraged  with  everything  that 
I  could  have  almost  cried !  But  in  my  need  I 
would  remember  God,  and  I  felt  his  help! 
And  so  the  puzzles  disappeared,  and  I  won- 
dered where  I  had  found  them. ' ' 

The  principal  of  the  high  school  was  proud 
of  his  star  pupil,  and  asked  her  to  go  as 
teacher  to  Grandview  Academy,  where  he  had 
accepted  a  position.  So  it  came  to  pass  that 
the  girl  of  twenty  taught  classes  of  young 
men  and  women,  and  many  of  them  were 
older  than  herself.  Brain  and  hand  were 
taxed  to  the  utmost  in  those  busy  days  at 
Grandview.  There  were  singing-lessons  to 
be  practised  daily,  besides  her  regular  sched- 


28    Under  Marching  Orders 

ule  of  teaching.  Furthermore,  the  people  in 
the  little  church  in  the  town  had  chosen  the 
resourceful  girl  as  superintendent  of  the 
Sunday-school.  Finally,  in  every  odd  mo- 
ment she  was  studying  persistently  in  order 
to  enter  college  with  advanced  standing. 

But  a  dream  of  another  sort  came  all  un- 
bidden and  came  to  stay,  and  by  and  by  this 
new  dream  absorbed  the  ambition  for  college. 
There  was  a  huge,  old-world  country,  with 
five  times  as  many  people  as  the  Eepublic  and 
nearly  sixty  times  as  many  as  the  Dominion 
of  Canada,  where  teachers  were  very  scarce, 
and  where  pupils  were  as  the  sand  of  the  sea 
for  number.  Might  not  she  be  needed  there  ? 
From  what  she  had  heard,  she  was  sure  those 
pupils  were  in  need  of  lessons.  They  did  not 
know  the  simplest  things  about  geography  or 
history  or  science,  and  the  girls  among  them 
didn't  even  know  how  to  read.  At  that  time 
girls  weren't  considered  worth  teaching  in 
that  ancient  land.  Moreover,  the  people  did 
not  know  about  God,  and  heaven,  and  Jesus 
Christ.  Should  she  not  go  and  teach  them? 
She  was  now  under  marching  orders,  and 
when  an  army  regiment  is  ordered  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  where  is  the  soldier  who 


Women  with  the  Scoop  Bonnets 


Old  Prison  Hospital,  Arsenal  Island 


A  Girl,  in  the  Making  29 

hesitates  1  The  bugle-call  had  sounded  again, 
and  this  time  there  was  no  mistaking  its 
meaning.  So  it  came  about  that  Mary 
Porter,  to  the  surprise  of  her  friends,  and 
somewhat  to  the  surprise  of  herself,  decided 
to  spend  her  life  in  China. 

A  strange  coincidence  was  discovered 
while  she  was  making  ready  to  go  to  China. 
A  person  by  the  name  of  Mary  Porter  was 
already  living  in  Peking,  the  city  to  which 
she  was  to  be  sent.  Mail  matter  would  cer- 
tainly be  confused,  so  she  must  put  a  middle 
letter  in  her  name  to  identify  herself. 
"What  shall  it  be?  Query ?"  she  asked  of 
her  sister  one  day.  ' '  Q  stands  for  query,  let 
it  be  Q,"  and  Mary  Q.  Porter  it  was  until 
that  day  in  China  when  she  changed  her  name* 
for  that  of  another. 

The  gray  house  in  the  square  was  left 
behind  for  five  years  at  least  when  the  train 
pulled  out  of  Davenport  for  the  west  and  the 
girl  of  the  house  began  her  long  journey.  It 
had  been  arranged  by  her  friends  that  a 
gentleman  whom  they  knew  should  meet  Miss 
Porter  at  San  Francisco  and  take  her  to  the 
steamer.  He  walked  through  the  train 
closely  scanning  each  passenger,  but  did  not 


30         Under  Marching  Orders 

find  any  one  he  thought  could  be  the  new  mis- 
sionary. As  he  came  back  through  the  car, 
he  stopped  nearly  opposite  her  seat  and  said, 
"I  am  looking  for  Miss  Porter  who  is  going 
to  China.  Do  any  of  you  know  her?"  "I 
am  Miss  Porter, ' '  came  a  demure  voice  from 
the  depths  of  the  seat.  The  gentleman  turned 
and  looked  at  the  slip  of  a  girl  with  her 
golden  curls  loose  in  her  neck,  and  her  blue 
eyes  shining  with  amusement.  "You!"  he 
exclaimed  with  some  emphasis;  "I  was  look- 
ing for  an  old  maid  ! ' '  It  was  no  wonder  the 
good  man  was  surprised,  for  this  girl  of 
twenty-three  was  one  of  the  youngest  mis- 
sionaries ever  sent  out  of  the  country.  In 
San  Francisco  she  found  Miss  Maria  Brown, 
a  young  woman  from  New  England,  who  was 
also  on  her  way  to  China.  Together  they 
went  on  board  the  steamer  and  sailed  out 
through  the  Golden  Gate,  sailing  west  in 
order  to  go  most  directly  to  the  Far  East. 

And  now  you  know,  do  you  not,  why  you 
found  the  American  girl  riding  her  donkey 
toward  the  great  wall  of  Peking  that  April 
afternoon  in  1872?. 


BOUND  OR  UNBOUND? 


si 


in 

BOUND  OR  UNBOUND? 

"A  man's  reach  should  exceed  his  grasp, 
Or  what's  a  heaven  for?  " 

One  December  evening  in  the  sitting-room 
of  the  "Long  Home''  in  Peking,  Mary  Porter 
and  Maria  Brown  sat  on  the  floor  in  front  of 
the  stove  in  which  a  coal  fire  was  brightly 
burning.  The  chill  of  a  northern  winter  had 
settled  npon  Peking,  and  the  clanging  bells  of 
the  camel  trains  which  brought  the  supply  of 
coal  from  the  western  hills  to  the  city  were 
a  most  welcome  sound  in  the  ears  of  the 
foreigners. 

Here,  within  the  walled  court  of  a  Chinese 
compound,  and  beneath  the  tiled  roof  of  a 
Chinese  house,  was  a  room  distinctively 
American.  A  sofa  of  familiar  pattern  stood 
against  the  wall.  In  the  center  of  the  room 
was  a  large  table  covered  with  books,  and  by 
its  side  a  big,  friendly  arm-chair.    An  open 

I  desk  was  in  one  corner,  and  a  medicine-chest 
with  its  rows  of  labeled  bottles  waited  in 
trim  readiness  for  use.    There  were  pictures 
S3 


34         Under  Marching  Orders 

on  the  walls,  and  a  straw  matting  covered  the 
boards  which  had  replaced  the  brick-paved 
floor.  The  soft  light  of  a  shaded  lamp  shone 
through  the  long,  narrow  room,  and  the  two 
glowing  eyes  of  the  stove  added  further 
gleams  of  brightness. 

This  was  home  to  the  two  young  women 
from  America,  and  here,  in  the  quiet  of  Sun- 
day evening,  they  faced  and  settled  a  momen- 
tous question.  From  the  beginning,  girls  had 
been  admitted  to  their  school  only  on  condi- 
tion that  the  bound  feet  should  be  released 
from  the  tight  bandages  and  allowed  to  grow 
naturally.  No  other  girls'  school  in  China 
insisted  upon  this  rule.  Should  they  continue 
to  do  so?  Moreover  it  had  to  be  acknowl- 
edged that  some  of  the  small  band  of  pupils 
already  gathered  in  school  had  been  taken 
away  solely  because  their  feet  had  been  un- 
bound. Teachers  who  had  been  in  the  country 
years  instead  of  months  said  that  it  would 
not  do  to  break  down  such  an  old  Chinese 
custom  all  at  once,  that  parents  would  never 
allow  their  girl-children  to  go  to  the  Chris- 
tian school  if  so  cherished  a  tradition  must 
be  sacrificed. 

Here  then  was  the  question,  and  the  two 


Bound  or  Unbound?  35 

young  women,  as  they  sat  before  the  fire  that 
Sunday  evening,  knew  that  only  one  answer 
was  possible.  The  yards  and  yards  of  cotton 
bandage  must  be  removed,  and  the  poor, 
cramped  toes  and  overgrown  insteps  restored 
to  normal  size  and  use.  The  hollow-eyed, 
sad  little  girls  of  China,  hobbling  about  on 
their  doll-like  feet,  should  become,  in  the 
Christian  school,  rosy,  healthy  children,  run- 
ning and  playing  like  the  other  small  folk  of 
God's  world.  The  human  body  is  God's 
own  creation  and  gift,  and  to  distort  it  is 
more  than  a  cruel  national  custom ;  it  is  a  sin. 
Thus  Miss  Porter  and  her  companion  rea- 
soned together,  and  thus  the  question  was 
settled. 

That  night's  decision  reached  far  into  the 
future  and  touched  hands  with  a  certain 
edict  from  the  throne  of  China  proclaiming 
in  the  year  1907,  that  the  girls  of  the  empire 
should  henceforth  escape  the  torture  of  foot- 
binding.  And  when  the  girls'  school  of 
Peking  became  the  largest  school  for  girls 
in  all  China,  there  were  those  who  remem- 
bered the  Sunday  night  in  the  sitting-room  of 
the  ' '  Long  Home, ' '  and  who  readily  believed 
that  the  mighty  Master  himself  was  present 


36         Under  Marching  Orders 

at  that  conference  and  prompted  the  daring 
decision. 

The  l  '  Long  Home ' '  had  been  so  christened 
because  of  its  peculiar  dimensions.  When 
Mary  Porter  stepped  into  the  weed-grown 
court  on  her  first  morning  in  Peking,  she 
turned  to  look  at  the  little  house  which  she 
had  entered  in  the  darkness  of  evening. 
There  it  was,  peering  out  at  her  from  under 
its  overhanging  eaves  and  heavy,  tiled  roof. 
There  were  three  rooms  in  a  row  with  a 
veranda  across  the  length  of  the  house, 
which,  like  most  Peking  houses,  was  only 
one  story  high.  It  was  still  a  typical 
Chinese  house,  although  the  Americans  who 
lived  in  the  compound  had  exchanged  the 
paper  windows  for  glass,  and  had  laid  boards 
over  the  damp,  brick  floors. 

As  Miss  Porter  walked  down  the  path,  a 
great  dog  of  western  breed  bounded  for- 
ward and  greeted  his  fellow  American  by 
placing  both  paws  upon  her  shoulders,  mark- 
ing, in  his  descent  to  the  ground,  the  front 
of  her  gown  with  streaks  of  Peking  mud.  She 
said  afterwards  "that  the  act  made  an  im- 
pression upon  her  mind  as  well  as  upon  her 
gown,  whereby  she  remembered  that  it  rained 


Bound  or  Unbound?  37 

that  April  morning  in  Peking."  In  the 
months  and  years  to  come  in  China,  she  grew 
to  welcome  those  days  of  dripping  rain  as  an 
oasis  in  an  endless  desert  of  dnst. 

The  path  straggled  through  the  weeds  to  a 
hole  in  the  wall  of  the  compound.  This  hole 
was  a  perfect  circle  six  feet  in  diameter,  and 
was  the  Chinese  moon-gate.  Near  the  gate 
was  a  small  bnilding  which  served  as  chapel. 
In  the  court  were  two  other  houses,  three 
fourths  Chinese  and  one  fourth  American  in 
appearance.  These  were  occupied  by  the  two 
families  from  America  who  had  already  made 
Peking  their  home.  A  brick-paved  court  led 
from  the  inside  court  to  the  great,  double  gate 
which  opened  on  Filial  Piety  Lane. 

Here,  then,  was  Mary  Porter's  new  world, 
the  world  of  her  dream.  A  gray  brick  wall 
frowned  like  the  wall  of  a  prison.  The  long- 
drawn,  oriental  houses  were  picturesque,  but 
musty  and  cheerless  compared  with  the  open, 
sunny  house  in  Davenport.  There  were 
about  ten  other  Americans  to  share  her  work 
and  play.  And  here  within  this  stuffy  com- 
pound was  the  girl  who  once  was  lured  by 
the  attractions  of  college,  and  of  large  activ- 
ity in  the  homeland.    Had  she  come  to  China 


38         Under  Marching  Orders 

in  vain?  Listen!  From  the  other  side  of  the 
wall  came  a  singsong  of  boyish  voices  shout- 
ing unintelligible  sounds.  The  boys  of  the 
mission  school  were  studying  their  lessons 
aloud  in  good  old  Chinese  fashion.  But  out 
beyond  those  gray  walls  were  hundreds  of 
little  girls,  unloved  and  untaught.  No  school 
for  girls  had  ever  been  provided  by  Chinese 
educators  until  the  coming  of  the  mission- 
aries. Was  there  not  work  for  the  American 
girl  to  do? 

The  new  school  for  girls  grew  slowly  in 
its  pioneer  days.  The  first  small  pupil  who 
came  ran  away  as  fast  as  her  bound  feet 
could  carry  her  when  she  saw  the  queer  look- 
ing foreigners.  During  that  first  year  per- 
haps fifty  girls  came  and  went  away  again, 
while  only  seven  came  and  remained.  The 
Chinese  told  hideous  tales  one  to  another, 
tales  of  how  the  foreigners  removed  the  eyes 
of  Chinese  children  and  used  them  for  med- 
icine. Mothers  would  hastily  cover  the  eyes 
of  their  children  when  they  met  the  so-called 
"foreign  devils"  in  the  streets  of  Peking, 
lest  somehow  they  cast  an  evil  spell  upon 
them.  Parents  who  allowed  their  children  to 
go  to  the  Christian  school  were  mostly  so 


Bound  or  Unbound?  39 

poor  that  they  would  accept  any  means  to 
relieve  themselves  of  feeding  and  clothing 
one  more  little  body.  Sometimes  the  girls 
were  left  in  school  only  long  enough  to  receive 
new,  warm  clothing,  when  they  were  taken 
home  and  their  clothes  sold  or  pawned. 

Among  the  seven  bewildered  little  girls 
who  dared  to  stay  in  the  school  was  a  strange 
child  called  Hui  An.  She  had  an  unusually 
bright  mind  and  understood  the  Christian 
teaching  more  quickly  than  the  other  girls, 
but  her  faculty  for  memorizing  was  meager. 
Consequently  she  was  in  perpetual  disgrace 
with  the  old  Chinese  teacher  to  whom  the  aim 
and  end  of  education  was  to  learn  by  heart 
lengthy  passages,  and  even  entire  books. 

In  those  days  when  the  school  was  small, 
it  was  the  habit  of  the  girls  to  go  each  even- 
ing, one  by  one,  into  a  quiet  room  where  they 
knelt  with  Miss  Porter  and  learned  to  pray 
to  the  God  whom  they  had  so  recently  come 
to  know.  One  afternoon  as  soon  as  school 
was  dismissed,  Hui  An  knocked  at  Miss 
Porter's  door  and  asked,  "Please  may  I  say 
my  prayers  now!"  Miss  Porter  replied  that 
she  would  better  wait  until  the  usual  hour. 
But  the  girl  was  too  much  in  earnest  to  be 


40         Under  Marching  Orders 

refused,  and  her  prayer  was  heard  by  Miss 
Porter,  and  the  Father  to  whom  she  spoke. 
She  arose  from  her  knees  with  a  contented 
face.  Miss  Porter  again  asked  why  she  had 
come  at  that  early  hour.  "By  this  time  the 
child  had  gained  a  little  more  courage,  and, 
standing  upon  one  foot,  toying  nervously 
with  her  big  sleeves,  her  face  downcast,  she 
said:  'I  love  so  much  to  play  that  every  day 
I  just  play  as  hard  as  I  can  from  the  time 
school  is  out  until  supper  time,  and  after 
supper  to  prayer  time,  so  when  I  come  in  to 
pray  I  just  can  think  of  nothing  but  the  play, 
and  all  out  of  breath  I  want  to  rush  through 
the  prayer  and  be  off  to  play  again.  And 
now/  she  said,  '  since  I  know  that  God  knows 
about  this  kind  of  business  and  doesn't  like 
it,  I  am  afraid  to  do  so  any  more. 9  "  It  was 
the  same  Hui  An  who,  years  after,  was 
burned  to  death  because  she  would  not  desert 
her  post  of  duty.  i  i  There  are  others  depend- 
ent upon  me,  * '  she  said,  when  asked  to  escape 
to  a  place  of  safety.  The  hardy  spirit  of  the 
Peking  school  had  mastered  the  Chinese  girl 
and  braced  her  to  meet  danger  and  death. 

Sarah  Wang  was  another  of  Miss  Porter's 
pupils  in  those  early,  formative  days  of  the 


Bound  or  Unbound?  41 

school.  She  it  was  who  made  the  famous 
journey  from  her  home  in  Shan-tung  to 
Peking — on  a  wheelbarrow!  It  was  a  dis- 
tance of  four  hundred  miles,  taking  sixteen 
days  for  the  jerky  ride  over  the  uneven 
roads.  Sarah's  mother  and  sister  Clara 
traveled  with  her,  and  the  two  girls  were  to 
be  left  in  the  Christian  school.  Mrs.  Wang 
belonged  to  an  old,  respected  family.  There 
was  by  nature  a  certain  queenly  element  in 
her  which  made  her  an  undaunted  Christian. 
She  had  become  convinced  that  foot-binding 
was  wrong,  and  thus  she  fully  expected  to 
have  her  daughters'  feet  freed  from  the 
bandages  as  soon  as  they  entered  school. 
When  the  new  shoes  and  stockings  were  pro- 
duced and  the  unbinding  process  began,  the 
mother  at  first  smiled  approvingly  saying, 
" God's  will  be  done,  let  the  feet  be  unbound." 
Then  her  fine  face  quivered  with  emotion  and 
the  slow  tears  came.  She  wrung  her  hands 
and  walked  restlessly  up  and  down  the  room. 
"Unbind  only  the  feet  of  one,  and  let  the 
other  child's  remain  bound,"  she  begged 
piteously.  And  then  she  reproached  herself 
for  her  weakness.  It  was  the  conflict  between 
the  old  life  and  the  new,  and  it  cost  to  give  up 


42         Under  Marching  Orders 

the  old  ways.  The  tiny  foot  was  a  sign  of 
gentility,  of  high  social  standing,  and  family 
pride  put  in  its  claim.  But  the  new  faith  tri- 
umphed over  the  old  custom  and  Mrs.  Wang's 
face  became  quiet  and  earnest.  "Go  on," 
she  said, ' '  it  shall  be  done. ' '  Thus  the  victory 
was  won  in  the  life  of  that  stately  woman  of 
an  ancient  race. 

Some  months  later,  Sarah  went  home  to 
Shan-tung  for  her  first  vacation.  As  she 
rode  in  her  cart  through  the  country,  her 
large  feet  provoked  many  comments.  Beg- 
gars, taking  her  for  a  man,  followed  the  cart 
crying  out:  "Venerable  uncle,  pity  me,  pity 
me  I"  If  she  spoke  or  laughed,  thus  betray- 
ing her  sex,  they  said,  "Venerable  maiden.' ' 
If  she  walked  along  the  road,  children  would 
come  running  from  the  fields  to  see  this 
strange  freak  of  a  human  being.  She  over- 
heard some  one  say,  "This,  finally,  is  what 
kind  of  a  person?  The  head  is  that  of  a 
maiden,  but  the  feet  are  like  those  of  a  man, 
and  it  has  bound  on  ankle  ties.  What  can  it 
be?"  Thus  it  cost  Sarah  as  well  as  her 
mother  to  give  up  the  old  customs  and  dare 
the  scorn  of  her  tormentors. 

She  was  eleven  vears  old  when  she  returned 


Bound  or  Unbound?  43 

to  school  at  the  end  of  vacation.  In  her 
native  village  they  had  ridiculed  and  even 
insulted  the  girl  who  had  come  home  with 
unbound  feet,  the  first  girl  ever  seen  in  that 
region  with  feet  of  natural  size.  Sarah  went 
to  Miss  Porter  crying  as  if  her  heart  would 
break,  and  declared  that  never  again  did  she 
want  to  go  home.  Then  it  was  that  the  young 
American  teacher  who  had  herself  faced  crit- 
icism in  the  home  country,  and  open  hostility 
here  in  China,  put  nerve  and  courage  in  the 
shrinking  Chinese  girl.  "It  always  means 
suffering  to  be  a  pioneer  in  any  work  and  in 
any  land.  But  for  the  sake  of  those  who  are 
to  follow  in  the  way  you  have  trod,  can  you 
not  bear  it  ? ' '  And  then  she  appealed  to  the 
girl  Christian  in  the  name  of  her  Christ. 
6 •  Can  you  not  do  this  for  his  sake  ?  Will  you 
not  help  his  cause  by  bearing  this  hardship! 
Go  home  every  vacation  and  tell  your  villa- 
gers that  it  is  for  love  of  a  new-found  God 
that  you  remove  the  bandages  which  deform 
the  body  he  claims  for  his  temple.  Keep  on 
telling,  and  after  a  while  they  will  under- 
stand, and  you  will  have  served  your  Savior 
and  made  things  easier  for  all  other  girls  who 
shall  unbind  their  feet. ' '    The  girl  responded 


44         Under  Marching  Orders 

to  this  challenge  in  the  same  soldier-like 
spirit  in  which  Mary  Porter  had  herself  an- 
swered the  bugle-call  to  action.  Never  again 
did  Sarah  complain  or  falter  as  she  went  her 
way  on  the  unbound  feet. 

During  these  early  years,  experiences  such 
as  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  pioneer  beset  Mary 
Porter's  life  in  China.  She  was  more  than 
an  explorer  in  a  new  world.  She  had  come  as 
a  settler,  and  therefore  "what  could  not  be 
cured  must  somehow  be  endured.' '  Inva- 
riably she  took  the  hard  things  in  the  spirit  of 
an  interesting  adventure,  and  was  true  to 
her  reputation  as  the  girl  who  was  bound  to 
find  a  way  out  of  every  emergency.  One  day 
Chinese  workmen  were  building  the  walls 
of  the  new  schoolhouse  in  the  compound. 
The  Chinese  method  of  construction  was  to 
lay  double  walls  of  brick  quite  close  together, 
with  single  bricks  placed  across  between  the 
walls  at  frequent  intervals  to  serve  as  sup- 
ports. These  connecting  bricks  were  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  the  stability  of  the  wall. 
Mary  Porter  had  kept  strict  watch  of  the  wily 
Chinese,  who  were  waiting  for  the  chance  to 
omit  the  third  row  of  bricks  if  they  could  do 
so  undetected.    Every  day,  as  the  wall  rose 


Bound  or  Unbound?  45 

higher  and  higher,  she  climbed  up  and  peered 
into  the  space  between.  One  morning  she 
heard  a  workman  say,  ' '  The  wall  is  too  high 
now  for  the  girl  to  climb.' '  Thereupon  she 
determined  that  they  should  see  whether  or 
not  the  girl  could  climb.  She  mounted  the 
scaffolding,  and  with  one  push  sent  the  shaky 
wall  crumbling  to  the  ground.  After  that 
the  builders  learned  to  respect  the  American 
girl  whose  blue  eyes  missed  little  of  what  was 
going  on  about  her,  and  whose  ears  were 
quick  to  understand  even  the  strange  words 
of  Chinese  speech. 

As  the  months  went  on,  novelty  of  life  in 
the  compound  was  worn  threadbare.  Every 
nook  and  corner,  crack  and  crevice  of  the 
dusty  old  Chinese  houses  became  familiar. 
Each  and  every  object  in  the  rooms  could  be 
located  with  one's  eyes  closed.  At  home  in 
the  United  States,  when  monotony  threatens, 
there  is  always  the  chance  to  go  down-town 
and  look  in  the  shopwindows,  perhaps  to  go 
to  a  concert  of  beautiful  music,  or  better  yet, 
walk  for  long  distances  in  the  open  country. 
If  Mary  Porter  ventured  outside  the  double 
gate  of  the  compound  into  the  streets  of 
Peking,  the  very  children  would  cover  their 


46         Under  Marching  Orders 

eyes  and  run  in  the  opposite  direction.  When 
at  a  safe  distance  they  would  join  with  others 
in  the  cry,  "Foreign  devil!"  Then  there 
were  scenes  in  the  streets  which  haunted  her 
memory  day  and  night.  Dead  cats  and  dogs 
were  left  unburied.  Little  dingy  bundles 
wrapped  in  coarse  matting  were  cast  outside 
the  gates  of  the  houses  to  await  the  coming 
of  the  ox-cart  which  passed  daily  through  the 
streets  to  bear  the  bodies  of  dead  babies  to 
burial.  If  a  man  were  in  mortal  danger  no 
Chinese  would  venture  to  his  relief,  lest  he 
be  dragged  to  court  on  charge  of  having 
caused  the  man's  misfortune.  An  American 
bishop  once  said  that  he  had  discovered  sixty- 
nine  different  unpleasant  odors  in  unwhole- 
some Peking,  besides  a  combination  of  sev- 
eral others  which  he  could  not  distinguish. 
In  the  market-places  and  near  the  city  gates 
the  dust  was  unspeakable.  Peking  dust  is 
unique  among  all  dusts  of  the  earth  for  its 
blackness,  its  stickiness,  and  its  actual  filth. 
No  wonder  then  that  Miss  Porter  chose  to 
walk  on  the  great  wall  of  the  city  above  the 
sights  and  sounds  and  odors  of  the  street. 
Tall  grasses  sprang  up  unchecked  between 
the  stones.     Myriads  of  birds  flew  high  and 


Bound  or  Unbound?  47 

low.  Even  the  birds  of  China  were  different 
from  their  brothers  of  America.  The  pet 
pigeons  had  whistles  tied  to  their  tails,  and 
as  they  flew  their  buzzing  shriek  could  be 
heard  in  all  directions. 

In  the  summer-time  Miss  Porter  looked 
down  from  the  wall  into  dense,  green  foliage 
through  which  the  yellow  tiles  of  the  palace 
buildings  gleamed  like  leaves  of  gold.  There 
were  once  two  travelers  in  Peking,  one  of 
whom  said  the  city  was  treeless,  and  the 
other  that  it  was  a  veritable  forest ;  the  dif- 
ference being,  that  one  traversed  the  city 
streets,  and  the  other  the  city  wall.  The  trees 
were  all  enclosed  within  the  walls  by  which 
Chinese  dwellings  were  surrounded,  and  be- 
cause the  walls  were  high  and  the  streets 
narrow,  not  a  sign  of  a  tree  was  visible  from 
the  street. 

There  was  always  a  sense  of  home-coming 
when  Miss  Porter  returned  from  her  walk  on 
the  wall  to  Filial  Piety  Lane  and  into  the 
compound  behind  the  double  gate.  Unques- 
tionably there  was  work  to  do  in  her  new 
world,  and  work  that  was  worth  doing.  One 
day  she  wrote  a  letter  which  traveled  across 
the  sea  to  that  other  home  in  America:  "No, 


48         Under  Marching  Orders 

I  have  had  no  regular — wonder  if  you  did  not 
mean  irregular — fits  of  homesickness.  I  have 
longed  to  see  you  all,  thought  of  you  until  the 
tears  come — not  common  with  me — but  there 
is  no  despondency  in  it.  I  fully  believe  God 
has  kept  me  from  such  feelings,  and  in  an- 
swer to  prayer.  .  .  .  An  Influence  has  sup- 
ported me  all  the  way  that  I  did  not  feel  in 
past  days." 

In  the  i *  Long  Home ' '  each  noon- time,  Mary 
Porter  and  Maria  Brown  knelt  together  to 
ask  God's  blessing  upon  the  new  work  which 
had  come  into  being  through  their  own  lov- 
ing efforts.  In  some  way  one  of  their  fellow 
laborers  heard  of  the  daily  habit,  and  at  his 
suggestion  the  noon  hour  was  made  a  time 
of  prayer  for  the  entire  mission. 

There  in  the  musty  compound,  in  a  corner 
of  the  huge,  alien  city,  nearly  nine  thousand 
miles  from  home,  Mary  Porter  spent  the 
years  of  her  young  womanhood.  And  those 
days  of  prolonged  anxiety,  even  of  fierce 
excitement  and  bitter  peril  which  were  yet  to 
come,  cast  no  foreboding  shadow.  It  was  with 
a  great,  glad  hope  that  she  marched  into  that 
unknown  future  within  which,  near  or  far, 
she  would  find  her  dream  come  true. 


IN  A  PEKING  CART 


IV 
IN  A  PEKING  CART 

"Made  like  our  own  strange  selves,  with  memory,  mind,  and 
will; 
Made  with  a  heart  to  love,  and  a  soul  to  live  forever! " 

Early  one  October  morning,  two  carts 
drawn  by  mules  passed  through  the  Hata 
gate  of  the  city.  They  were  just  ordinary 
Peking  carts,  having  none  of  the  insignia  of 
official  rank,  such  as  the  broad  band  of  red 
cloth  around  the  wooden  sides,  or  the  pomp- 
ous outriders  on  mules  bedecked  with  tasseled 
trappings.  Faded  cloth  of  Chinese  blue  cov- 
ered the  tops  of  the  carts.  By  their  side  rode 
two  escorts  on  horseback,  one  a  Chinese  boy, 
and  the  other  a  foreigner.  It  was  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Western  stranger  which  excited 
the  curiosity  of  the  throng  on  the  road  out- 
side the  gate.  Eager  eyes  gazed  into  the 
openings  at  the  front  of  the  carts.  Sure 
enough  there  were  other  ridiculous  foreigners 
inside.  Moreover  they  were  women,  Amer- 
ican women,  and  one  had  curly,  light  hair  and 
blue  eyes.    What  a  laughable  contrast  to  the 

51 


52         Under  Marching  Orders 

dark-eyed  women  of  China,  with  their  coils 
of  glossy,  black  hair!  Who  but  a  Western 
barbarian  would  have  curly  hair! 

If  the  inquisitive  Chinese  could  have  peered 
still  farther  into  one  of  the  carts,  they  would 
have  discovered  satchels  and  books,  and 
the  usual  supply  of  bedding  without  which  no 
traveler,  native  or  foreign,  fares  forth  in 
China.  On  the  back  of  the  cart  was  strapped 
a  large  box  containing  dishes,  cooking  uten- 
sils, the  small  charcoal  stove,  and  a  generous 
provision  of  food.  This  was  the  portable 
kitchen  and  pantry  combined,  so  necessary  to 
the  comfort  of  him  who  seeks  the  uncertain 
hospitality  of  Chinese  inns.  Two  mules  drew 
the  cart.  One  was  harnessed  between  the 
shafts  and  attended  strictly  to  duty.  The 
other  was  attached  by  a  long  rope  fastened 
near  the  axle.  He  described  a  circle  through 
the  surrounding  country,  unless  recalled  by 
the  long  whip  of  the  carter.  On  the  side  of 
the  shaft  sat  the  little  man  who  wielded  the 
reins  and  brandished  the  whip.  Only  to  the 
foreigners  was  the  Peking  cart  a  doubtful 
convenience.  To  the  Chinese,  the  springless 
box  on  wheels  was  a  simple  necessity,  whose 
possible  improvement  was  not  to  be  consid- 


Peking  Carts  on  Rough  Roads 


Riveb  Febby 


In  a  Peking  Cart  53 

ered.  Even  the  long  nails  which  fastened  the 
rims  on  the  wheels,  and  which  dug  their  bris- 
tling heads  into  the  ground,  stirred  no  crit- 
icism. It  was  only  the  nervous  Westerner 
who  objected. 

Meanwhile  the  two  carts  and  the  two 
riders  traveled  steadily  away  from  the  cap- 
ital city  out  toward  the  borders  of  the  royal 
province  of  Chih-li,  southeast  in  the  direction 
of  Shan-tung.  It  was  a  long  journey  these 
wayfarers  had  planned,  and  stout  must  be 
the  nerves  and  courage  of  him  who  endures 
to  the  end.  It  was  like  Mary  Porter,  like  the 
venturesome  girl  of  old,  to  start  unhesita- 
tingly upon  a  trip  never  before  attempted  by 
a  woman.  Once,  in  the  Peking  compound,  she 
wrote  a  letter  home  in  which  were  these 
words:  "I  refuse  to  acknowledge  that  there 
is  anything  I  ought  to  do  which  I  cannot  do. ' ' 
Nine  hundred  miles  of  travel  in  a  Peking 
cart  was  a  formidable  prospect  even  to  the 
strongest  man,  but  with  the  call  of  duty  in 
her  ears,  it  could  and  should  be  done.  Her 
fellow  travelers  were  the  gentleman  on  horse- 
back and  his  wife  who  rode  with  her  in  the 
cart.  In  the  other  cart  sat  Mrs.  Wang,  the 
mother   of   Sarah,   who   was  now  a   Bible 


54         Under  Marching  Orders 

woman,  and  often  Miss  Porter's  companion 
on  the  country  trips.  Another  of  the  mis- 
sionaries was  to  join  them  at  Tientsin.  Thus 
with  the  Chinese  servant  and  the  two  carters, 
there  were  eight  people  to  share  the  expe- 
riences of  travel. 

Each  day  the  carts  covered  the  allotted 
distance  for  a  day's  journey,  thirty  miles. 
Tientsin  had  been  left  behind,  and  they  were 
now  in  a  country  new  and  strange  to  the 
women  from  the  Western  world.  About  dusk 
the  mules  and  horses  drew  up  in  Hsing-chi. 
It  was  one  of  those  excitable  Chinese  towns 
where  it  was  easy  to  stir  up  a  mob.  The  carts 
bumped  through  the  long  village  from  one 
end  to  the  other,  but  every  inn  was  stubbornly 
closed  against  the  foreigners.  A  crowd  was 
rapidly  gathering  and  following  close  upon 
them.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but  start  at 
once  for  the  next  village.  On  the  outskirts 
of  Hsing-chi  they  found  a  dirty  little  inn 
huddled  down  by  the  roadside.  It  was  too 
forlorn  even  to  raise  a  protest  against  the 
foreigners,  so  a  refuge  for  the  night  was 
found  at  last.  Miss  Porter  and  her  compan- 
ion slept  in  a  room  which  had  apparently 
been  used  as  a  stable.     There  was  scarcely 


In  a  Peking  Cart  55 

any  furniture  save  the  usual  brick  kang 
(bed)  under  which  the  fire  may  be  built. 
The  walls  were  of  grimy  clay,  and  the  floor 
of  bare,  brown  earth. 

In  the  morning,  in  the  midst  of  prepara- 
tions for  an  early  start,  a  horse  broke  loose 
and  ran  down  the  road.  One  of  the  men  of 
the  party  went  in  pursuit,  and  upon  his  return 
passed  and  repassed  the  little  crouching  inn 
before  recognizing  his  habitation  of  the  night. 
Afterward  he  remarked  that  he  didn't  think 
it  possible  for  Christian  people  to  have  stayed 
in  ' '  such  a  hole. ' ' 

Beyond  Meng-ts'un,  the  carts  turned  aside 
from  their  course  to  search  out  the  site  of 
old  Ts'ang-chou.  New  Ts'ang-chou  is  four- 
teen miles  distant  on  the  bank  of  the  river. 
Legend  has  it  that  the  inhabitants  moved  the 
town  by  passing  one  brick  after  another  along 
two  parallel  lines  of  people  which  stretched 
from  the  old  town  to  the  new.  True  it  was 
that  only  low  mounds  covered  with  stiff 
grass,  and  the  famous  lion  wrought  of  cast 
iron,  remained  to  tell  the  story  of  a  once 
populous  city.  That  peculiar  silence  which 
haunts  deserted  things,  hung  low  over  the 
uneven  grass  and  the  fallen  lion.    The  head 


56         Under  Marching  Orders 

had  been  broken  from  the  body  of  the  beast 
and  lay  on  the  gronnd  a  few  feet  distant. 
Still  farther  on  lay  the  nose,  which  was  of 
such  great  weight  that  no  man  conld  lift  it. 
The  entire  party  sat  down  together  inside  the 
head,  and  the  horses  stood  inside  the  body. 
The  broken  lion  was  another  token  of  the 
age  of  that  land  which,  though  so  old  in  years, 
was  yet  a  child  in  wisdom.  Hundreds  of 
years  ago,  the  lion,  with  a  companion  lion, 
guarded  the  entrance  of  a  palace  in  the 
ancient  town  long  since  vanished. 

In  the  little  chapel  at  Shang-chia-chai,  the 
next  stopping  place,  the  Chinese  Christians 
gathered  for  evening  prayer  and  the  singing 
of  hymns.  They  had  heard  of  the  clear, 
soprano  voice  which  led  the  singing  in  the 
compound  at  Peking,  and  Miss  Porter's  com- 
ing was  hailed  with  joy.  With  childlike  sat- 
isfaction they  sang  the  old  hymns  of  the 
Church,  begging  Miss  Porter  to  correct  their 
mistakes,  as  they  had  learned  most  of  the 
songs  from  Chinese  teachers.  Frequently 
they  stopped  singing  to  tell  her  how  eagerly 
they  had  hoped  for  good  singers  to  come  and 
teach  them.  The  old  tune  of  Greenville  was 
their  particular  favorite,  and  they  sang  it 


In  a  Peking  Cart 


57 


again  and  again  with  whole-hearted  enthusi- 
asm. Miss  Porter  listened  appreciatively  to 
their  original  variation  in  one  of  the  meas- 
ures, which  was  sung  with  keenest  enjoyment. 
The  music  is  written  in  this  way : 


They  sang  it  thus 


mm 


J_ 


<J 


At  best,  Chinese  voices  are  not  melodious 
in  song,  yet  music  of  angels  could  scarcely 
have  been  more  thrilling  than  were  those 
Christian  hymns  sung  straight  from  the  heart 
of  men  and  women  who  had  so  recently 
learned  that  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ  can 
create  a  perpetual  song  in  the  life  of  man. 

During  one  of  her  vacations  spent  in  the 
United  States  Miss  Porter  studied  at  a  con- 
servatory in  New  York,  trying  to  repair  the 


58         Under  Marching  Orders 

injury  done  her  voice  by  dusty  China  and 
the  husky  Chinese.  There  it  was  that  the 
vocal  teacher  said  to  her:  "If  you  had  come 
to  us  ten  years  earlier,  we  would  have  made 
a  first-class  soprano,  and  spoiled  a  first-class 
missionary." 

Late  in  October  the  little  band  of  travelers 
came  to  the  river  which  goes  by  the  name 
of  "China's  Sorrow."  Eichly  does  it  de- 
serve its  name.  In  its  descent  from  the 
snow-covered  mountains  of  Tibet  it  collects 
the  yellow  clay  deposit  from  the  loess  country 
of  northwestern  China.  Down  in  the  region 
of  the  Great  Plain  this  clay  chokes  the  chan- 
nel, until  the  river  bed  is  almost  as  high  as 
the  surrounding  country.  Then  in  time  of 
freshet  the  water  bursts  through  the  fragile 
dikes,  overwhelming  crops,  adobe  houses,  and 
sometimes  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people. 

Crossing  the  Yellow  Eiver  is  a  novel  ex- 
perience for  the  foreigner,  to  say  the  least. 
A  crude  flatboat  propelled  by  a  scull  answers 
the  purpose  of  a  ferry.  To  stem  the  swift 
current  the  scull  is  kept  in  vigorous  motion, 
but  even  so  the  boat  is  carried  inevitably 
down  stream  and  makes  a  diagonal  landing 
on  the  other  shore.    On  the  return  trip,  the 


In  a  Peking  Cart  59 

boat  crosses  and  makes  its  way  up  stream  by 
hugging  the  bank  out  of  reach  of  the  central 
current.  To  transport  carts,  mules,  horses, 
and  people,  was  as  much  of  a  problem  as  the 
old  conundrum  about  the  fox,  the  goose,  and 
the  bag  of  corn.  First,  the  mules  had  to  be  un- 
hitched, then  the  carts  were  drawn  over  heavy 
planks  and  placed  side  by  side  on  the  boat. 
Shouts  and  lashings  compelled  the  animals 
to  walk  across  the  rude  gangway,  and  last 
of  all  the  eight  passengers  went  on  board  and 
the  boat  started.  Meanwhile  a  great  crowd 
had  time  to  assemble  on  both  banks  of  the 
river  to  see  the  "foreign  devils"  and  more 
especially  the  "devil  women."  Miss  Porter 
won  the  distinguished  title  of  "little  devil" 
because  she  was  not  so  tall  as  her  three  com- 
panions. 

In  the  villages  and  on  the  river  banks  these 
Chinese  throngs  were  not  disrespectful  to  the 
foreigners ;  they  were  only  highly  amused  and 
took  no  pains  to  disguise  the  fact.  Miss 
Porter  often  thought  of  the  old  chorus : 

"The  elephant  now  goes  round, 
The  band  begins  to  play." 

If  she  talked  earnestly  to  the  women  gathered 
in  a  Chinese  home,  they  watched  her  move- 


60         Under  Marching  Orders 

ments  as  they  would  watch  the  antics  of  a 
monkey.  One  day  a  Chinese  pastor  was 
preaching  to  the  people  of  a  village,  but  his 
audience  were  so  fully  absorbed  in  gazing  at 
Miss  Porter  they  had  no  ears  for  his  words. 
Without  warning  he  said,  "I  know  she's 
queer  looking,  with  her  pink  hair  and  green 
eyes,  but  I  want  you  to  listen  to  me. ' '  There- 
upon he  resumed  his  discourse.  Experiences 
of  this  kind  had  their  funny  side,  but  never- 
theless Miss  Porter  came  to  the  end  of  many 
a  day  tired  and  disheartened.  It  was  a  slow 
task  to  find  a  way  into  the  minds  of  these 
strange  people  for  the  life-story  she  had  come 
to  tell.    She  could  only  pray  and  wait. 

Down  in  the  province  of  Shan-tung  the 
carts  bounced  over  the  plowed  ground  in 
search  of  the  road  they  had  lost.  Darkness 
had  dropped  gradually  upon  the  land,  and 
Mrs.  Wang's  village  was  yet  unreached.  A 
faint  light  flickered  in  the  distance.  The 
carts  drove  in  that  direction  only  to  find  a 
grave  in  the  midst  of  a  field,  and  a  fire  burn- 
ing near  by.  Paper  food  and  other  supposed 
necessities  were  being  burned  for  the  spirits 
of  those  who  had  gone  from  the  land  of  the 
living  into  that  mysterious  darkness  which 


In  a  Peking  Cart 


61 


Chinese  religion  knows  not  how  to  interpret. 
At  length  the  carts  recovered  the  road  which 
led  into  An-chia-chuang,  the  ancestral  home 
of  the  Wang  family.  In  the  rooms  adjoining 
Mrs.  Wang's  court,  the  travelers  settled  them- 
selves for  the  night,  and  for  the  week  or  more 
they  were  to  spend  in  that  neighborhood. 

On  this  long  country  journey  they  usually 
stayed   in    some    village    where    a    pioneer 


YELLOW     SEA 


Journey  from  Peking  to  An-chia-chuang 


62         Under  Marching  Orders 

worker  had  gone  before  and  founded  a  little 
mission  station.  Here  they  unpacked  the 
cotton  mattresses  and  kitchen  from  the  cart, 
and  made  themselves  as  comfortable  as  they 
could  in  the  midst  of  Chinese  surroundings. 
From  this  town  as  headquarters  they  rode 
each  day  into  the  outlying  villages  to  visit 
and  teach  the  women.  A  song  was  in  their 
hearts  as  they  went,  because  of  the  high  joy 
of  making  the  great  Christ  known  to  those 
who  never  before  dreamed  such  love  was 
possible. 

It  was  from  An-chia-chuang  that  Sarah 
Wang  had  set  forth  on  her  wheelbarrow.  To 
the  remote  little  town  she  returned  on  her 
unbound  feet.  And  now  her  villagers  were 
to  see  for  themselves  the  foreign  teacher  who 
had  given  Sarah  the  strangely  beautiful 
truths  which  had  changed  her  life. 

One  day  Mrs.  Wang  took  Miss  Porter  into 
the  court  occupied  by  the  family  of  her  hus- 
band's brother.  This  branch  of  the  family 
still  clung  to  the  beliefs  and  superstitions  of 
Confucianism.  Opening  upon  the  court  was 
a  large  room,  grimy  with  smoke,  whose  walls 
were  hung  with  seed-corn,  dried  herbs,  and 
all  manner  of  implements.    In  a  dingy  cor- 


In  a  Peking  Cart  63 

ner  of  the  room  stood  a  long  table  on  which 
were  arranged  the  tablets  of  family  ancestors, 
beginning  hundreds  of  years  back.  Chinese 
characters  were  carved  on  the  face  of  each 
tablet,  giving  the  date  of  birth  and  death,  as 
well  as  the  two  names  of  the  person ;  the  one 
borne  in  life,  and  the  new  name  bestowed 
upon  the  dead  spirit.  In  the  hollow  down  the 
center,  deftly  covered  by  a  thin  strip  of  wood, 
the  soul  was  supposed  to  abide.  According  to 
Chinese  belief  man  has  three  souls.  One 
abides  in  the  tablet,  another  is  buried  with  the 
body,  and  the  third  proceeds  on  his  lonely 
way  to  the  spirit  world.  Before  the  tablet  in 
which  dwells  the  imprisoned  spirit,  the  loyal 
Chinese  must  burn  incense,  and  bow  low  in 
homage  and  promised  obedience.  "When  a 
member  of  the  household  becomes  a  Chris- 
tian, he  refuses  to  participate  in  this  heathen 
ceremony,  and  is  usually  disinherited  in  con- 
sequence. The  sturdy  little  man  who  drove 
Miss  Porter's  cart,  told  her  that  his  name  and 
the  names  of  his  brothers  had  been  erased 
from  the  family  records  because  for  years 
they  had  declined  to  join  the  family  in  an- 
cestral worship. 

Mrs.   Wang's   village   was   not   far  from 


64         Under  Marching  Orders 

a  historic  region.  About  a  hundred  and 
thirty  miles  to  the  southwest  was  Ch'iu-fu, 
the  home  and  burial-place  of  Confucius.  In 
the  "Most  Holy  Grove"  beyond  the  "Spirit 
Koad"  lay  the  body  of  the  one  who  has 
directly  influenced  one  fourth  of  all  the  people 
of  the  world.  Confucius  taught  some  noble 
principles  of  living,  but  the  deepest  ques- 
tions of  life  he  could  not  and  did  not  try  to 
answer.  He  pointed  his  disciples  to  the  misty 
days  of  antiquity  as  the  ideal  for  all  Chinese 
living.  Thus  for  more  than  two  thousand 
years,  thousands  of  millions  of  people  have 
stood  with  i \  their  faces  toward  the  dead  past, 
the  future  a  darkness  out  of  which  no  voice 
comes."  And  yet,  five  hundred  years  after 
Confucius  died,  there  came  to  another  city 
in  Asia  the  Teacher  whose  voice  has  lifted 
the  heads  of  his  disciples  to  behold  the  glories 
above  and  beyond,  and  has  drawn  their  hearts 
to  him  in  love.  How  strange  that  throughout 
all  these  centuries,  and  on  the  very  same  con- 
tinent where  he  lived,  the  Chinese  should 
scarcely  know  his  name !  Has  not  that  love 
reached  also  unto  them? 

Late  in  the  nineteenth  century  the  little 
group  of  the  followers  of  Christ  labored  in 


In  a  Peking  Cart  65 

his  name  in  the  ancient  province  of  Shan- 
tung. However  mnch  the  holy  city  of  the 
province  may  have  interested  that  dauntless 
young  traveler,  Mary  Porter  did  not  go  from 
An-chia-chuang  to  visit  Ch'iu-fu.  Women 
came  from  the  surrounding  villages  to  learn 
of  the  foreign  teacher,  and  her  hands  were 
full  of  work.  Moreover  the  day  was  soon 
to  come  when  she  must  leave  Mrs.  Wang  and 
the  new  Christians,  and  enter  her  cart  for  the 
return  journey. 

As  the  heads  of  the  mules  were  turned 
toward  the  north,  Yang  Ssu,  the  carter,  re- 
marked with  satisfaction :  ' '  Now  we  leave  the 
mountains  of  the  south.  When  we  see  the 
mountains  in  the  north  there  will  be  hope, 
for  they  are  the  mountains  about  Peking.' ' 
There  were  snow-storms  to  encounter  on  the 
homeward  way,  for  the  lovely  autumn  days 
had  long  since  gone.  Ice  blocked  the  river 
near  the  bridge  of  boats ;  the  chill  of  winter 
was  in  the  air.  All  the  more  was  the  joy  of 
home-coming  in  her  heart,  as  Mary  Porter 
drew  near  the  great  wall  of  Peking,  and  after 
fifty  days  of  travel  passed  again  behind  the 
walls  of  the  compound  on  Filial  Piety  Lane, 
where  a  great  experience  lay  just  ahead. 


THE  TURNING  OF    THE    ROAD 


THE  TURNING  OF  THE  EOAD 

"A  turn,  and  we  stand  in  the  heart  of  things." 

One  day  in  the  fall  of  1881,  there  was  a 
stir  of  excitement  in  the  compound  in  Peking. 
A  young  man  had  come  from  New  York  to 
join  the  mission,  and  the  arrival  of  a  new 
worker  was  always  a  great  event. 

Everywhere  in  the  world  a  halo  of  inter- 
est rests  for  a  time  upon  the  newcomer.  He 
is  also  more  or  less  on  trial  until  he  has 
proved  his  mettle.  In  double  measure  were 
these  things  true  in  the  little  settlement  in 
Peking.  Twelve  or  fifteen  Americans  were 
living  within  a  walled  court  in  the  midst  of  an 
Oriental  city.  To  be  sure,  there  were  other 
Americans  and  Europeans  in  Peking,  but 
each  group  lived  within  its  own  walled  en- 
closure, and  attended  to  its  own  work.  For 
the  most  part,  the  people  in  the  mission  com- 
pound depended  upon  one  another  for  com- 
panionship and  sympathy.  They  were  like 
one  large  family  occupying  one  family  plan- 
tation.   The  children  of  the  mission  had  the 


70         Under  Marching  Orders 

habit  of  calling  all  the  grown-ups  "uncle" 
and  "aunt."  One  small  lad  was  taken  to 
America  in  his  early  years,  and  seeing  the 
throngs  of  white  people  on  the  streets  of  New 
York  exclaimed:  "So  many  uncles  and 
aunts ! ' ' 

It  was  no  wonder  that  a  new  member  of  the 
group  was  the  center  of  attention  until  he 
settled  into  his  place  in  the  community  life. 
Those  who  were  the  first  to  greet  the  young 
man,  brought  back  the  verdict  that  he  looked 
like  "the  captain  of  a  prize  rowing  crew." 
Every  one  seemed  to  be  happily  confident 
that  he  was  a  great  addition  to  the  mission, 
and  that  he  would  do  a  large  work  in  the 
newly  awakening  world  of  China.  That  their 
predictions  were  fulfilled  we  shall  see. 

Mr.  Frank  D.  Gamewell  was  the  son  of 
John  N.  Gamewell,  the  inventor  of  the  Game- 
well  Fire  Alarm  and  Police  Telegraph.  Evi- 
dently he  inherited  his  father's  scientific 
bent,  for  he  chose  the  career  of  civil  engineer, 
and  for  his  training  went  to  the  Polytechnic 
Institute  in  Troy,  New  York,  and  also  to 
Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  New  York.  Be- 
yond most  young  men,  he  had  large  dreams  of 
activity  and  success  along  his  line  of  work.    It 


The  Turning  of  the  Road        71 

was  a  great,  busy  world  in  which  he  lived,  and 
he  meant  to  take  his  place  among  its  strong 
workers.  Suddenly,  in  the  senior  year  at 
college  came  the  unexpected  decision  to  go 
to  China.  October  of  the  same  year  found 
him  in  the  mission  station  in  Peking. 

The  new  dream  had  come  to  him  very  much 
as  it  had  come  to  Mary  Porter.  Both  the 
young  man  and  the  young  woman  had  high 
ambitions  for  an  active  life  at  home.  Then 
came  to  each  one  that  clear,  unmistakable 
summons  which  no  true  soldier  dares  dis- 
obey. And  so  the  two  found  themselves  in  the 
walled  compound  in  Peking.  The  woman  had 
come  a  few  years  before  and  had  entered 
upon  her  work.  The  man  stood  at  the  thresh- 
old of  his  immense  opportunity,  alert  and 
purposeful. 

It  was  not  strange  that  they  became  great 
friends,  for  in  some  ways  they  were  much 
alike.  They  preferred  a  busy  life,  full  to  the 
brim  of  work  and  enjoyment.  They  reveled 
in  out-of-doors,  in  long  horseback  rides,  and 
in  the  beauty  of  land  and  sky.  They  loved 
books  and  music,  and  everything  that  sug- 
gested the  poetry  and  the  wonder  of  life.  In 
the  moments  which  could  be  snatched  from 


72         Under  Marching  Orders 

the  busy  work-days  of  winter,  they  talked 
together  before  the  coal  fire  in  the  sitting- 
room.  In  the  spring  they  walked  on  the  city 
wall  and  marveled  at  the  strange  life  abont 
them.  Sometimes  there  were  long  country 
tours,  when  those  who  journeyed  in  company 
came  into  a  closer  knowledge  of  one  another. 
There  is  verily  no  end  to  the  interesting  sub- 
jects congenial  people  can  discuss  together. 
Each  mind  brings  out  the  best  in  the  other, 
and  keen  is  the  joy  of  such  comradeship.  It 
was  but  a  natural  conclusion  to  a  natural 
friendship  that  Mary  Q.  Porter  should  be- 
come the  wife  of  Frank  D.  Gamewell.  The 
"Q"  which  stood  for  the  question  was  an- 
swered in  the  new  name  which  became  her 
own.  They  were  married  on  a  June  evening 
in  1882,  in  the  church  which  had  been  built 
in  the  compound.  The  Eev.  George  E.  Davis, 
who  had  married  Miss  Maria  Brown  a  few 
years  previously,  performed  the  wedding 
ceremony. 

In  1884,  the  Mission  Board  in  New  York 
sent  word  to  Mr.  Gamewell  that  he  had  been 
appointed  superintendent  of  the  mission  in 
Chung-ch'  ing,  sixteen  hundred  miles  from 
the  seacoast,  out  toward  the  borderland  of 


Frank  D.  Gamewell  Mary  Porter 

At  the  Time  of  Marriage 


The  Turning  of  the  Road        73 

Tibet.  This  was  an  unexpected  marching- 
order,  but  once  again  like  soldiers  under  com- 
mand, the  man  and  woman  arose  and  obeyed. 
Only  three  years  old  was  this  mission  in 
the  frontier  city  in  the  midst  of  a  restless, 
untamed  people.  For  the  second  time  in  her 
life  Mrs.  Game  well  would  become  the  pioneer 
in  a  work  newly  started.  For  the  second 
time  also  would  she  have  to  leave  home  and 
venture  into  the  unknown  surroundings.  To 
go  out  from  the  compound  in  Filial  Piety 
Lane  was  almost  as  heroic  a  move  as  it  had 
been  to  leave  the  gray  house  in  Davenport. 
Since  her  marriage  she  had  had  her  own 
home  in  one  of  the  houses  which  had  been 
built  inside  the  enlarged  court.  It  was  an 
original  and  artistic  home  in  its  arrange- 
ments, like  the  woman  who  always  had  her 
own  individual  way  of  doing  things.  Then 
again  there  was  the  girls'  school  which  she 
had  mothered  from  its  birth.  The  Bible 
women,  too,  she  had  sought  herself  in  the 
villages  and  brought  to  Peking  to  study.  It 
was  her  own  work,  a  part  of  her  very  self,  and 
it  rent  her  heart  to  give  it  up.  Yet  out  in 
West  China  was  the  little  struggling  mission 
calling  for  her  ready  resource  and  for  Mr. 


74         Under  Marching  Orders 

Gamewell  's  energy  to  plan  and  do.  Evidently 
their  hour  of  opportunity  had  come. 

Down  in  the  vast,  swarming  city  of  Shang- 
hai they  paused  to  prepare  for  the  long  in- 
land journey  up  the  Yang-tzu  Eiver  to 
Chung-ch'ing.  The  first  one  thousand  miles 
could  be  traveled  in  a  comfortable  river 
steamer,  but  for  the  last  six  hundred  miles 
they  would  have  to  depend  upon  native  boats, 
upon  which  the  passenger  provides  his  own 
food  and  bedding.  To  meet  this  emergency 
they  purchased  fruit,  meat,  fish,  vegetables, 
butter  and  milk  in  sealed  tins,  and  the  other 
necessities  of  Oriental  travel,  all  of  which  the 
foreign  stores  in  Shanghai  abundantly  sup- 
plied. 

The  river,  which  is  called  "  China's 
Girdle,"  is  to  China  what  the  Mississippi  is 
to  the  United  States,  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
Canada,  and  the  Amazon  to  South  America. 
For  years  beyond  count  the  Yang-tzu  Eiver 
has  been  a  highway  of  traffic  for  half  the 
empire  of  China.  From  the  mountains  of 
Tibet  it  winds  its  way  three  thousand  miles 
to  the  ocean.  Even  thirty  miles  out  to  sea  its 
yellow  waters  conquer  the  blue  of  the  Pacific. 
Time  was  when  only  native  junks  plied  their 


The  Turning  of  the  Road        75 

busy  way  over  this  mighty  river.  Then  came 
the  bold  mariner  from  the  Western  world, 
who  pushed  his  ocean  vessel  two  hundred 
miles  up  the  Yang-tzu  to  Nanking,  China's 
famous  city  of  learning.  Eiver  steamers  soon 
connected  Nanking  with  Hankow,  four  hun- 
dred miles  beyond,  and  finally,  small  steam- 
boats sailed  triumphantly  up  stream  to 
I-ch'ang.  Beyond  I-ch'ang  were  the  fierce 
rapids  of  the  upper  Yang-tzu,  where  foreign 
enterprise  gave  way  before  simple  Chinese 
ingenuity.  It  was  not  wholly  strange  that 
the  Chinese  should  look  with  suspicion  upon 
the  intruder  from  across  the  seas.  Native  ves- 
sels had  been  thrust  out  of  business  and  lay 
useless  on  the  river  banks.  Their  owners 
thought  they  had  good  reason  for  throwing 
missiles  at  steamboats,  and  joining  the  ranks 
which  shouted  death  to  the  foreigner. 

At  I-ch'ang  Mr.  Gamewell  chartered  a 
native  boat  for  the  trip  to  Chung-ch'ing.  It 
was  eighty  feet  long,  and  boasted  four  pas- 
senger cabins,  and  a  crew  of  forty-two  men. 
At  the  stern  of  the  boat  a  huge  oar  forty  feet 
long,  served  as  a  rudder.  Nearby  were  the 
drum,  the  pilot's  signal,  and  the  coils  of  bam- 
boo   rope    for    the   mysterious    "trackers." 


76         Under  Marching  Orders 

There  was  a  great  hubbub  when  the  junk 
pulled  away  from  its  moorings.  Loud  orders 
were  shouted  by  the  captain;  angry  voices 
of  sailors  contested  right  of  passage  with  the 
crews  of  other  junks.  Emerging  at  last  from 
the  jam  of  boats,  the  men  at  the  oars  fell  into 
a  rhythmic  tread  to  the  tune  of  a  native  boat- 
song. 

They  were  a  picturesque  lot  of  men,  these 
boatmen  of  the  upper  Yang-tzu.  Mrs.  Game- 
well  called  them  the  only  picturesque  Chinese 
she  had  ever  seen.  The  detested  cue  had 
been  wound  around  the  head  and  covered  by 
a  turban.  The  cue  is  a  symbol  of  the  sub- 
jection of  the  Chinese,  forced  upon  them  by 
the  haughty  Manchus  when  they  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Chinese  government  nearly  three 
hundred  years  ago.  The  bold  men  of  the 
western  provinces  scorned  this  sign  of  their 
humiliation,  and  since  they  dared  not  cut  it 
off,  took  this  means  of  concealing  it.  Long 
bandages  bound  their  legs  from  ankle  to  knee 
to  protect  from  the  strain  of  climbing.  Their 
trousers  ended  at  the  top  of  the  bandages, 
and  a  short  jacket  belted  with  a  sash  com- 
pleted the  costume. 

The  first  day  beyond  I-ch/  ang  brought  Mr. 


Trackers  on  the  Yang-tzu 


The  Turning  of  the  Road        77 

and  Mrs.  Gamewell  into  the  solemn  presence 
of  the  great  gorges  of  the  Yang-tzu.  Per- 
pendicular walls  rose  a  thousand  feet  above 
the  dark  stream,  shutting  out  the  sky  and 
daylight.  The  wind  shrieked  like  a  demon 
through  the  narrow  passageway.  The  trav- 
elers looked  with  interest  for  the  little  tow- 
paths  which  twisted  along  the  ragged  edge  of 
rocky  cliffs  hundreds  of  feet  above  their 
heads.  Mrs.  Gamewell  thought  there  was 
scarcely  foothold  for  a  mountain  goat. 
Near  each  rapid  dwelt  a  band  of  trackers 
whose  task  it  was  to  aid  the  crews.  Some- 
times the  water  rushed  so  swiftly  that  one 
hundred  extra  men  were  needed  for  each 
boat.  It  was  a  breathless  moment  when  the 
tow-lines  were  thrown  to  the  " trackers,' ' 
the  drum  signaled,  and  the  boat  dashed  into 
the  current.  The  men  bent  almost  to  the 
ground  as  they  tugged  at  the  long  ropes,  and 
the  boat  began  slowly,  inch  by  inch,  to  mount 
the  rushing  torrent.  For  a  full  half  hour  the 
trackers  pulled,  the  waters  roared,  the  drum 
beat  and  the  pilot  shouted,  until  at  last  the 
boat  plunged  in  safety  through  the  three 
hundred  yards  of  rapids  and  passed  into 
calmer  water,    Mrs.  Gamewell  had  traveled 


78         Under  Marching  Orders 

in  an  assortment  of  conveyances,  but  for 
sheer  excitement  there  was  nothing  to  com- 
pare with  the  Chinese  boat  on  the  upper 
Yang-tzu. 

For  two  weeks  the  boat  clung  to  its  wind- 
ing course  through  narrow  gorges,  under 
tall,  black  cliffs  and  rugged  mountains.  The 
majesty  and  the  loneliness  of  it  all  was  al- 
most too  much  to  endure.  At  last  the  river 
widened,  the  mountains  ceased  to  press  so 
close,  and  a  gentle  hill  country  gave  heart  to 
the  strangers  in  a  strange  land.  One  day, 
a  month  after  leaving  I-ch'ang,  following  a 
bend  in  the  river  they  came  all  at  once  in  sight 
of  the  ' '  city  built  on  a  hill. '  '  It  was  Chung- 
ch'ing,  the  goal  of  their  journey.  "The  vast 
and  solemn  solitudes  out  of  which  we  had 
come  left  us  with  an  impression  of  having 
arrived  at  the  end  of  the  world,  with  the 
habitations  of  men  left  far  behind.  The  great 
city  with  its  frowning  wall  encircling  the 
rocky  spur  on  which  the  city  lay,  seemed  an 
unreal  thing — a  vision.' ' 

Thus  Mrs.  Gamewell  wrote  in  a  home  letter 
describing  her  sensations  at  the  end  of  the 
wonderful  journey.  The  phantom  city  be- 
came abruptly  real  as  they  climbed  the  long 


The  Turning  of  the  Road        79 

flight  of  stone  steps  from  the  river  edge  three 
hundred  feet  to  the  city  wall,  and  proceeded 
through  the  gate  to  their  new  home. 

Inside  four  plastered  mud  walls  were  the 
Chinese  buildings  belonging  to  the  new  mis- 
sion. Unlike  Peking  houses  they  were  two 
stories  in  height.  They  were  built  a  few  feet 
from  the  wall,  facing  upon  a  small  inside 
court  dismally  darkened  by  the  overhanging 
roofs  of  the  houses.  Ceaselessly  did  the  cling- 
ing mists  drip,  drip  upon  the  stones  below. 
It  was  late  in  the  morning  before  the  sun's 
rays  cast  a  gleam  upon  the  pavement,  and 
sometimes  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
the  evening  lamps  must  be  lighted.  Mrs. 
Gamewell  said  it  was  like  living  in  a  well. 

Furthermore  the  houses  were  so  close  to- 
gether they  almost  formed  one  continuous 
structure.  For  a  sensitive  nature  the  lack  of 
privacy  was  a  constant  irritation.  Mrs. 
Gamewell  once  shut  herself  into  a  small  closet 
for  two  hours  in  the  desperate  need  to  be 
alone. 

Before  experience  taught  its  weary  lesson 
she  used  sometimes  to  go  to  the  northern 
gate  in  the  vain  hope  of  a  breath  of  fresh  air 
from  the  hills.    Occasionally,  as  she  opened 


80         Under  Marching  Orders 

the  door,  a  baby  tumbled  in.  Usually  it  was  a 
girl,  sickly  or  deformed,  cast  off  by  her  par- 
ents. Sometimes  it  was  a  dead  child  whose 
burial  would  thus  be  avoided  by  the  wretched 
parents,  for  Chinese  law  requires  that  those 
on  whose  premises  a  dead  body  is  found  shall 
give  it  burial. 

Verily  a  sublime  faith  in  God  and  in  each 
other  was  demanded  of  the  man  and  woman 
who  had  come  to  work  among  these  deluded 
people.  At  times  a  thought  of  the  awful  dis- 
tance from  home  swept  in  and  caught  them 
unawares.  Down  through  the  tremendous 
gorges  of  the  Yang-tzu,  two  months  to  Shang- 
hai, across  the  long,  blue  waters  of  the  Pacific, 
another  month  of  travel  before  they  could 
reach  the  friends  at  home !  But  for  the  man 
and  his  wife  there  was  never  a  doubt  or 
regret.  Mrs.  Gamewell  reveals  the  secret. 
"I  truly  rejoiced  to  believe  that  the  Master 
controls  each  event  as  it  comes.  I  am  so  glad 
that  he  is  in  it  all,  that  nothing  seems  severe 
so  far  as  I  am  concerned.' 9 


A  CHINESE   MOB 


si 


VI 

A  CHINESE  MOB 

"By  faith  he  went  out,  not  knowing  whither  he  went." 

More  than  three  miles  outside  the  city  on 
the  great  road  leading  to  the  capital  of  the 
province,  and  high  on  the  bank  of  the  river, 
lay  the  property  recently  purchased  by  the 
Chung-ch'ing  mission.  The  Chinese  tenants 
had  vacated,  and  two  of  the  mission  families 
had  taken  possession.  It  was  like  freedom 
from  prison  to  escape  from  the  damp,  dole- 
ful quarters  of  the  old  compound  into  the 
sunlight  of  the  open  country.  Often  in  the 
morning  Mrs.  Gamewell  walked  into  the  city, 
returning  in  the  evening  when  the  day's  work 
was  done. 

New  vigor  and  hope  quickened  body  and 
mind.  The  girls '  school  seemed  to  be  gaining 
favor  among  the  suspicious  Chinese.  The  hos- 
pital was  winning  the  gratitude  of  a  people 
for  much  of  whose  pain  there  had  been  no 
remedy  until  the  coming  of  the  Western  phy- 
sician. On  every  side  was  encouragement. 
Out  on  the  highway  which  passed  the  new 

83 


84         Under  Marching  Orders 

home  of  the  mission,  multitudes  of  Chinese 
surged  to  and  fro,  and  with  characteristic 
curiosity  and  disregard  of  time,  lingered  at 
the  premises  of  the  foreigner  to  see  and  hear. 
Meanwhile,  Chinese  workmen  slowly  raised 
the  walls  of  the  hospital  and  school  buildings 
which  were  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  en- 
larging work.  Mrs.  GamewelPs  letters  were 
full  of  enthusiasm.  Whenever  there  was 
work  to  do  and  she  was  needed  to  do  it,  this 
little  woman  of  indomitable  spirit  made  good 
her  opportunity. 

Gradually  into  her  hopefulness  crept  a 
dreary  foreboding.  For  some  reason  the 
Chinese  became  more  openly  hostile  to  the 
foreigners.  There  had  always  been  a  smoth- 
ered resentment  against  the  stranger  from 
the  Western  world,  a  misunderstanding  of 
his  motive  and  his  doings,  but  now  the  smol- 
dering fire  seemed  likely  to  burst  into  flame. 
The  walls  of  the  mission  were  splashed  with 
mud.  Proclamations  issued  by  the  officials 
in  approval  of  the  missionaries  were  ruth- 
lessly torn  down.  "Foreign  dog"  and  "for- 
eign devil"  were  shouted  with  stinging  em- 
phasis. One  day  three  men  tried  to  assault 
Mr.  Gamewell  as  he  walked  alone  in  the  city. 


A  Chinese  Mob  85 

One  of  them  deliberately  flung  himself  in  his 
way  meaning  to  throw  him  down,  but  the 
trap  failed,  and  the  three  joined  in  a  jeering 
pursuit  along  the  street. 

The  6th  of  June  was  a  feast-day  in  China, 
the  5th  of  the  Fifth  Moon,  when  the 
Chinese  Dragon  Festival  was  celebrated.  It 
was  Sunday,  according  to  Christian  reckon- 
ing, but  for  the  Chinese  it  was  a  day  of  rev- 
elry. In  holiday  mood  they  thronged  the 
highways  of  the  city.  Yet  out  on  the  great 
road  there  was  comparative  orderliness  and 
quiet,  and  a  long  line  of  pedestrians  moved 
steadily  toward  the  city  gate.  Mrs.  Game- 
well  had  been  left  at  home  this  June  Sunday, 
while  her  colaborers,  Mr.  Gamewell  included, 
went  into  the  city  to  conduct  Church  services. 
She  was  tired  and  in  need  of  rest,  and  more- 
over it  was  not  safe  on  a  feast-day  to  leave 
the  compound  in  sole  charge  of  the  Chinese 
servants.  The  people  were  especially  med- 
dlesome those  days  and  it  would  be  necessary 
to  keep  the  gate  rigorously  closed. 

The  morning  passed  uneventfully,  but  soon 
after  the  noon  hour  a  babel  of  loud  voices  was 
heard  on  the  road  outside.  Presently  there 
was  a  vigorous  pounding  on  the  gate,  and  a 


86         Under  Marching  Orders 

rain  of  stones  fell  upon  the  tiled  roof  of  a 
building  near  the  wall.  Mrs.  Gamewell  took 
a  stout  oak  stick  in  her  hand,  and  went  to 
the  gate  which  a  servant  opened  at  her  bid- 
ding. There  they  were,  a  close-pressing, 
seething  mob  of  Chinese!  Standing  calmly 
by  the  gate-post  she  looked  into  the  dark, 
shifting,  faces  and  began  to  speak.  She  told 
them  it  was  contrary  to  all  their  li  (customs) 
to  seek  to  visit  a  house  when  the  men  were 
absent.  This  is  a  sensitive  point  of  Chinese 
etiquette  recognized  alike  by  all  classes,  so 
at  first  her  appeal  had  its  effect.  A  few  of 
the  more  respectable  sort  moved  shame- 
facedly away,  but  a  rough,  noisy  group  took 
their  places  until  some  two  hundred  people 
clamored  loudly  for  admission  into  the  new 
compound.  "Wait  until  the  place  is  finished 
and  we  will  invite  you  in,"  said  one  of  the 
servants.  "We  are  working  people,' '  was 
the  reply;  "we  cannot  come  any  other  day. 
We  intend  to  come  in  to-day. J ' 

Just  then  the  cook  slipped  away  unob- 
served, and  called  the  chief  of  police  to  the 
scene.  But  the  people  paid  no  attention  to 
him;  they  even  laughed  at  him.  So  boister- 
ous did  they  become  that  the  gate-keeper  was 


A  Chinese  Mob  87 

alarmed  for  Mrs.  GamewelPs  safety  and 
begged  her  to  go  inside.  As  she  turned,  a 
stone  was  thrown  at  her  and  the  crowd 
shouted  approval.  By  combined  efforts  the 
official  and  the  cook  held  the  mob  back  until 
she  had  escaped  beyond  their  reach. 

To  Mrs.  Gamewell's  surprise  she  found  a 
little  girl  by  her  side  as  she  crossed  the  court. 
The  child  had  been  drawn  to  the  woman  who 
dared  face  the  angry  crowd,  and  followed  her 
as  she  returned  to  the  house.  In  an  eager, 
quivering  voice  she  asked  if  she  might  stay 
in  the  mission,  and  if  sometime  she  might 
learn  to  read.  The  childish  tones  were  a 
soothing  contrast  to  the  harsh,  shrieking 
voices  outside,  and  her  cheery  little  presence 
was  like  ' '  a  sunbeam  shining  through  a  dark 
cloud. ' ' 

Scarcely  had  the  door  closed  upon  Mrs. 
Gamewell  and  the  child  when  the  pounding 
at  the  gate  was  renewed  with  added  energy. 
What  should  she  do  I  At  all  hazards  the  place 
must  be  held  until  the  men  returned  from  the 
city.  As  her  mind  sought  here  and  there  for 
means  of  resistance,  she  thought  of  the  new 
gun  recently  sent  as  a  gift  to  her  husband. 
There  was  no  ammunition,  to  be  sure,  but  a 


88         Under  Marching  Orders 

Chinese  mob  is  cowardly  at  heart  and  the 
mere  sight  of  a  gun  might  frighten  them 
away.  '  *  They  are  in,  they  are  coming, ' '  cried 
the  little  girl  who  was  watching  at  the  door. 
They  had  battered  down  the  heavy  gate,  and 
were  pushing  roughly  within.  Mrs.  Game- 
well  seized  her  gun  and  went  forth.  As  soon 
as  they  saw  it  there  was  a  general  rush  for 
the  street.  Mrs.  Game  well  followed  as  far 
as  the  gate  and  stood  on  guard  there  while 
one  half  of  the  great  door  was  closed  and  bar- 
ricaded with  heavy  stones.  But  the  crowd 
quickly  perceived  that  the  gun  was  not  loaded, 
and  collecting  again  about  Mrs.  Gamewell, 
protested  against  the  closing  of  the  other  half 
of  the  gate. 

Again  the  cook  set  forth  for  help,  this  time 
going  for  the  magistrate.  As  the  mob  swayed 
back  and  forth,  moved  by  varying  impulses, 
a  man  came  forward  leading  a  chi]d  by 
the  hand.  Under  pretense  of  being  a  friend 
whom  she  failed  to  recognize,  he  skilfully 
diverted  Mrs.  Gamewell 's  attention.  In  a 
flash,  some  one  glided  from  the  crowd  and 
seized  the  barrel  of  the  gun,  but  Mrs.  Game- 
well's  steady  grip  was  not  relaxed.  The 
two   servants  sprang  to  her  aid  and  with 


A  Chinese  Mob  89 

all  their  might  pulled  on  the  butt  end,  while 
as  many  as  could  get  hold  of  the  barrel  tugged 
in  the  opposite  direction.  They  pounded  her 
hands  and  arms,  while  the  onlookers  pelted 
her  with  mud.  Of  course  there  could  be  but 
one  end  to  the  unequal  struggle,  and  the  gun 
was  borne  away  in  dastardly  triumph  by  the 
mob. 

After  the  stampede  was  over  Mrs.  Game- 
well  turned  to  find  the  servants  looking  at  her 
in  real  anxiety.  The  old  gatekeeper  had  some 
fine  tobacco  in  his  hand  which  he  offered  to 
tie  about  her  finger.  Then  for  the  first  time  the 
courageous  little  sentinel  became  conscious 
of  the  blood  that  was  flowing  from  her  right 
hand,  and  which  had  already  stained  the 
pavement  a  dull  red.  Her  forefinger  had 
been  cut  almost  to  the  bone.  Mud  plastered 
her  face  and  neck,  and  just  below  her  temple 
a  big  lump  was  rising.  As  soon  as  the  crowd 
saw  the  blood  on  her  hands  and  face  they  fled 
in  terror,  for  to  draw  blood  is  a  crime. 

Just  then  the  cook  returned  and  said  the 
official  (P'u-kuan)  refused  to  concern  him- 
self with  the  matter.  This  was  the  last  straw. 
Mrs.  Gamewell  sat  down  alone  in  the  gate  and 
for  a  minute  the  hot  tears  came,  though  in 


90         Under  Marching  Orders 

truth  her  grief  was  more  for  the  lost  gun 
than  for  her  own  condition. 

After  she  had  bandaged  her  finger  and 
washed  off  the  mud,  the  magistrate  unex- 
pectedly walked  in.  The  disturbance  proved 
to  be  large  enough  to  warrant  his  attention; 
indeed  he  might  even  " lose  face"  unless  some 
action  were  taken.  "Face"  is  that  expressive 
word  constantly  heard  in  China,  easy  to  un- 
derstand but  hard  to  define.  The  Chinese  are 
a  very  ceremonious  people,  desiring  above  all 
things  to  be  regarded  as  "proper,"  thus  so 
long  as  the  outward  appearance  is  correct  it 
makes  no  difference  whether  the  heart  of  the 
man  be  true  or  false.  For  a  Chinese  to  "lose 
face ' 9  is  worse  than  death  itself.  One  way  to 
avoid  this  calamity  is  to  show  two  faces  at 
once,  at  which  difficult  art  he  is  an  adept.  The 
official  had  the  manner  of  one  ridiculing  the 
foreigners,  as  at  the  same  time  he  dispersed 
the  crowd  which  was  entering  the  court. 

Soon  after  the  magistrate  had  departed  in 
complacent  importance,  Mr.  Gamewell  en- 
tered the  house.  A  man  had  gone  to  town  to 
summon  him,  and  he  hastened  home  in  intense 
anxiety.  In  silence  he  looked  at  his  wife ;  his 
admiration  for  her  pluck  and  daring  exceeded 


A  Chinese  Mob  91 

only  by  his  keen  relief  at  finding  that  she  was 
not  seriously  hnrt.  By  and  by  the  doctor 
returned  from  church  and  dressed  the 
wounded  hand.  One  and  all  united  in  doing 
honor  to  the  brave  little  woman  whose  nerve 
had  saved  the  premises  from  being  looted. 
Once  again  she  had  played  the  soldier  and  in 
a  very  real  battle. 

With  the  help  of  the  British  consul  in 
Chung-ch'  ing,  Mr.  Gamewell  gained  access 
to  the  district  magistrate  and  reported  the 
disturbance  at  the  mission  compound.  The 
official  received  him  courteously,  and  agreed 
to  station  a  guard  temporarily  at  the  gate. 
He  would  not  promise,  however,  to  have  the 
ringleaders  of  the  mob  punished,  and  such  a 
course  was  necessary  to  prevent  a  second  out- 
break. 

Late  in  the  month  of  June  a  large  number 
of  military  students  from  the  western  prov- 
inces assembled  at  Chung-ch' ing  for  exam- 
inations. They  were  wild,  reckless  men, 
ready  for  anything  which  promised  excite- 
ment. At  the  same  time  thousands  of  people 
in  the  neighborhood  were  suffering  hunger 
on  account  of  the  high  price  of  rice,  and  were 
easily  stirred  to  riot,  impelled  by  the  hope 


92         Under  Marching  Orders 

of  plunder.  From  the  western  states  of 
America  came  reports  which  stung  like  a 
nettle  and  goaded  to  revenge.  Chinese  im- 
migrants were  being  maltreated  and  even 
killed  in  the  United  States.  Treaty  rights 
were  recklessly  violated.  Why,  in  the  name 
of  the  Confucian  religion,  which  at  least  de- 
mands justice,  should  Americans  be  tolerated 
on  Chinese  soil!  Thus  in  the  remote  inland 
province  of  China  the  little  group  of  Amer- 
icans paid  dear  for  the  injustice  of  their 
fellow  countrymen  on  the  other  side  of  the 
world. 

Like  a  tidal  wave  of  destruction  the  mob 
bore  down  upon  the  foreigners  in  Chung- 
ch'ing.  Nearer  and  nearer  it  came,  laying 
waste  the  property  of  the  British  consul  and 
the  Eoman  Catholic  cathedral,  in  its  resistless 
approach  toward  the  compound  in  the  city, 
where  the  missionaries  had  now  assembled. 
As  a  last  extremity  Mr.  Gamewell  tried  to 
plan  an  escape  by  way  of  the  river  which 
flowed  far  below,  preferring  its  precarious 
current  to  the  merciless  freaks  of  the  mob. 
But  this  chance  of  flight  was  cut  off,  for 
already  the  crowd  was  at  the  gate  pounding 
and    shrieking  with  a  determination  far  ex- 


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ir                         -    .  . .  • 

A  Chinese  Mob  93 

ceeding  the  Sunday  of  the  Dragon  Festival. 
Yet  the  little  company  of  men  and  women 
within  the  walls  were  calm  and  trustful.  Mrs. 
Gamewell  said  they  felt  the  iron  strength  of 
the  promise:  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  always, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. ' ' 

At  the  very  instant  when  the  frenzied 
Chinese  broke  through  the  barricades  at  the 
front,  an  excited  messenger  came  to  the  rear 
gate  bidding  the  missionaries  make  haste  and 
escape  while  yet  there  was  time.  The  magis- 
trate had  sent  sedan-chairs  to  bear  them  to 
his  yamen,  but  they  must  speed  away  into  the 
darkness  before  their  flight  was  detected. 
Even  as  the  mob  was  entering  the  court  they 
slipped  out  at  the  rear,  and  were  swiftly 
borne  along  the  precipice  overhanging  the 
river. 

The  weird,  silent  journey  came  to  a  sudden 
pause  as  the  bearers  made  a  quick  turn 
through  a  gate  and  dropped  the  chairs  before 
a  house  close  by  the  wall.  Into  the  small, 
stuffy  room  which  the  fugitives  were  com~ 
manded  to  enter,  crowded  a  rabble  of  Chinese 
who  remained  to  scoff.  Trying  beyond 
measure  was  the  situation  of  the  foreigners, 
until  their  guide  reappeared  and  helped  them 


94         Under  Marching  Orders 

force  their  way  through  the  struggling  crowd 
to  their  chairs  at  the  door.  As  Mrs.  Game- 
well's  turn  came,  and  she  took  her  seat,  it 
was  discovered  that  there  were  no  more 
chairs,  so  Mr.  Gamewell  must  be  left  behind 
while  she  was  spirited  away  into  the  city 
streets.  Her  last  look  revealed  him  in  the 
midst  of  an  excited  throng  which  shouted 
boisterously  for  him  to  wait,  that  he  could  not 
in  safety  walk  across  the  city  to  the  yamen. 

For  Mrs.  Gamewell  and  her  companions 
there  was  another  rapid  rush  along  dark 
edges  of  the  street,  and  a  stealthy  turn  into 
a  court  where  lights  were  forbidden.  They 
were  taken  into  a  house  and  told  to  ascend  a 
ladder  which  they  found  led  to  a  windowless 
garret,  totally  dark  and  breathlessly  hot. 
Silence  was  charged  upon  them,  and  there  on 
the  floor  they  sat  for  two  or  three  hours.  It 
seemed  endless  to  Mrs.  Gamewell,  tortured 
as  she  was  by  fears  for  her  husband.  But 
she  prayed  to  the  God  of  her  strength,  and 
seemed  to  feel  the  assurance  of  Mr.  Game- 
well's  safety. 

At  last  the  door  was  cautiously  opened  and 
a  messenger  brought  the  official  summons  of 
the  magistrate  to  his  yamen.    There  was  an- 


A  Chinese  Mob  95 

other  hasty  ride  and  the  chairs  came  to  a 
halt  in  a  court  where  Mrs.  Gamewell  found 
her  husband  watching  anxiously  for  her  com- 
ing. He  had  been  carried  directly  to  the  ya- 
men,  and  was  alarmed  at  not  finding  her 
there.  They  met  only  to  be  separated  at  once, 
for  Chinese  custom  demanded  that  the  men 
occupy  one  court  and  the  women  another. 

Mrs.  Gamewell  and  her  companions  were 
conducted  through  a  series  of  dimly  lighted 
apartments  into  the  room  which  was  to  be 
their  shelter  for  the  night.  Here  they  spent 
several  uneasy  hours,  sleeping  but  little  and 
not  daring  to  remove  their  clothes.  The 
morning  light  brought  the  haunting  thought 
that  they  were  homeless,  and  well-nigh 
friendless,  in  a  city  sixteen  hundred  miles 
from  the  coast.  The  mob  had  demolished 
every  foreign  house  in  Chung-ch'ing,  having 
first  seized  as  booty  the  cherished  posses- 
sions of  those  who  were  strangers  among 
them  and  who  would  so  gladly  have  been  their 
friends. 

During  two  weeks  of  suspense,  not  know- 
ing what  an  hour  might  bring  forth,  the  for- 
eigners were  kept  in  the  yamen  of  the  chief 
magistrate.    From  one  day  to  the  next  they 


96    Under  Marching  Orders 

knew  not  whether  they  would  be  dispatched 
on  the  swift  currents  of  the  Yang-tzu  to  the 
coast,  or  detained  as  prisoners  to  await  an 
uncertain  fate.  The  magistrate  insulted  and 
threatened,  and  with  paradoxical  insistence 
declared  that  he  was  taking  care  of  them. 
"In  America  they  kill  Chinese,"  was  his  con- 
stant taunt.  They  were  at  the  mercy  of  a 
fickle  government,  but  they  were  also  in  the 
care  of  a  steadfast  God. 

In  the  night  of  this  racking  anxiety  Mrs. 
GamewelPs  faith  shone  forth  like  a  star.  In 
her  diary  of  July  13th  she  wrote:  "I  have 
been  reading  the  book  of  Daniel.  God  is 
good.  He  has  drawn  us  very  close  to  himself 
during  these  days  of  trial.  Can  we  wander 
far  again?  I  shall  know  how  his  love  went 
before  us  each  day  and  wonder  that  my  eyes 
ever  turned  away!" 

Two  days  later,  passports  for  the  Amer- 
icans to  leave  the  city  were  received.  The 
magistrate  bade  his  wife  supply  them  with 
black  cloth  to  cover  their  heads,  and  Chinese 
clothes  to  complete  their  disguise.  They 
were  to  leave  the  city  in  the  third  watch  of 
the  night.  On  July  16,  these  entries  were 
made  in  Mrs.  Gamewell's  diary:  "5.45  a.  m. 


A  Chinese  Mob  97 

Up  all  night.  Feast  at  1.00.  To  boats  about 
2.00.  Weighed  anchor  about  5.45.  Left  in 
darkness.  Lanterns  swinging  in  the  fog. 
Soldiers  seen  in  the  dim  streets  guarding  our 
way  down  to  the  boat,  soldiers  and  yamen 
runners  guarding  and  pointing  the  way. 
Magistrate  came  down  and  sat  in  his  chair 
and  exhorted  the  boat  captains.  So  in  the 
darkness  we  steal  out  of  the  city  whose  people 
have  torn  up  every  vestige  of  our  home,  and 
left  us  with  none  of  the  treasures  we  brought 
with  us  two  years  ago. ' ' 

In  exactly  four  days  the  two  boats  rushed 
down  the  mad  currents  of  the  river  to 
I-ch'ang,  whereas  the  trip  up  stream  had 
taken  four  weeks.  The  difference  in  time 
tells  a  story  of  wild  mountain  torrents,  high 
winds,  and  daring  skill  of  valiant  oarsmen. 

Upon  reaching  Shanghai  Mrs.  Gamewell 
went  on  board  the  ocean  steamer  to  return 
to  the  United  States.  Life  in  China  had 
made  heavy  inroads  upon  her  splendid  health, 
and  a  rest  in  the  air  and  freedom  of  home  was 
a  necessity.  Mr.  Gamewell  turned  his  face 
toward  Peking,  to  arrange  a  settlement  with 
the  imperial  government  to  pay  for  the  loss 
of  property  in  the  Chung-ch'ing  riot. 


A  CHINESE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  AND 
A  CHINESE   CHURCH 


vn 

A  CHINESE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  AND  A 
CHINESE  CHURCH 

"Faith  is  nothing  else  but  the  soul's  venture." 

One  year  and  then  another  slipped  back 
into  history  until  some  twenty  years  had 
passed  since  Mary  Porter  had  her  first  vision 
of  the  gray  walls  of  Peking.  Inside  those 
walls  and  out  on  the  plains  beyond,  she  had 
wrought  with  all  her  soul  and  strength  for 
the  victory  which,  though  yet  invisible,  was 
surely  to  be  made  real.  The  joy  of  master- 
ing the  difficult  and  seemingly  impossible 
task  had  possessed  her  with  its  charm.  There 
in  the  heart  of  dusty,  crowded  Peking  she 
had  found  the  one  who  joined  her  in  her  quest 
of  the  ideal.  Far  away  inland,  in  high-built 
Chung-ch'  ing,  the  two  laborers  in  the  name 
of  their  great  Chief  had  laid  firm  strokes  of 
honest  effort  which  survived  in  triumph  the 
wreck  and  disaster  of  a  day's  defeat.  Beyond 
the  ocean  in  wide-awake  America  they 
spent  months  of  enthusiastic  interest,  profit- 
101 


102       Und-E.h  Marching  Orders 

ing  in  full  measure  by  the  stir  of  life,  and 
rejoicing  in  the  reunion  with  old  friends. 
Yet  persistently  their  thoughts  had  turned  to 
that  other  unforgotten  home  across  the  seas 
in  ancient  China.  The  old  call  to  service  in 
the  place  where  the  need  is  greatest,  the  call 
which  had  dominated  these  two  since  child- 
hood, had  again  sounded  its  irresistible  note. 
To  the  utter  joy  of  the  man  and  woman, 
their  mission  board  sent  them  back  to  their 
original  post  of  duty  in  the  compound  in 
Peking.  Mr.  Gamewell  was  assigned  his  task 
in  the  university  which  had  grown  out  of  the 
boys'  school  of  pioneer  days.  Around  Mrs. 
Gamewell  gathered  the  women  from  the 
scattered  communities  outside  Peking,  to  be 
taught  the  Bible  lessons  which  she  could  make 
so  vivid  and  throbbing  with  life.  Her  com- 
mand of  the  Chinese  language  was  so  com- 
plete that  they  often  said,  "She  talks  just 
like  one  of  us."  From  the  spell  of  her  per- 
sonality, women  of  the  type  of  Mrs.  Wang 
went  forth  into  the  country  districts  to  carry 
light  and  joy  into  hundreds  of  hopeless 
Chinese  homes.  Thus  the  influence  of  one 
shining  character  reached  far  and  wide  in 
northeastern  China. 


A  Chinese  Sunday  School      103 

As  the  years  went  on,  another  work,  new 
and  promising,  was  laid  in  her  willing  hands. 
It  was  the  wonderful  Peking  Sunday-school. 
In  the  beginning  the  Christian  students  and 
the  servants  of  the  compound  were  the  only 
pupils,  but  in  course  of  time  a  few  children 
from  the  neighborhood  strayed  in.  They 
were  familiar  with  the  tale  that  "foreign 
devils"  used  children's  hearts  and  eyes  to 
make  medicine ;  so,  naturally,  their  approach 
was  cautious.  About  this  time  a  young 
woman  from  New  England  joined  the  mis- 
sion, bringing  with  her  a  love  for  children 
and  a  quantity  of  picture  cards.  To  the  chil- 
dren from  the  streets  of  Peking  these  cards 
were  like  leaves  from  a  fairy  book. 

Each  Sunday  groups  of  small  folk 
assembled,  until  the  class  became  too  large 
to  meet  with  the  main  Sunday-school.  It  was 
given  a  room  of  its  own,  and  speedily  that 
room  was  filled  to  overflowing.  Children 
sat  on  seats  and  on  the  backs  of  seats;  they 
sat  on  each  other's  laps ;  they  sat  on  the  floor ; 
they  sat  on  the  table  and  under  the  table. 
The  teacher  was  obliged  to  take  her  place 
before  the  children  came  in,  and  when  all 
had  pressed  inside  she  had  just  standing- 


104       Under  Marching  Orders 

room  and  no  more.  If  visitors  called  she 
could  not  move  an  inck  to  receive  them,  nor 
could  they  go  beyond  the  half-open  door. 
They  exclaimed, ' '  Wonderful !    Wonderful ! ' ' 

It  was  not  long  before  a  whole  Sunday- 
school  was  formed  of  this  one  class.  In  the 
morning  the  Christians  of  the  mission  met 
in  classes  taught  by  the  missionaries.  In  the 
afternoon  the  children  of  the  city  and  any 
adults  who  cared  to  come  formed  a  second 
Sunday-school,  the  pupils  of  the  forenoon 
becoming  the  teachers  of  the  afternoon.  Just 
here  a  catastrophe  loomed  up  before  them. 
The  supply  of  cards  would  soon  be  exhausted ! 
An  urgent  letter  was  sent  to  America  asking 
that  small  packages  of  cards  be  dispatched 
at  once  by  mail,  and  boxes  sent  by  freight 
later. 

From  Maine  to  Maryland,  and  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi  this  letter  was 
read  and  answered.  Packages  of  all  shapes 
and  sizes  were  received  by  the  missionary  in 
Tientsin  whose  duty  it  was  to  forward  the 
mail  to  Peking.  Usually  he  employed  a 
courier  and  one  donkey  for  the  purpose,  but 
when  the  cards  began  to  crowd  the  bags,  he 
had  to  hire  three  donkeys  for  the  enlarged 


A  Chinese  Sunday  School      105 

postal  service.  In  the  spring  the  boxes 
arrived,  and  before  summer  there  was  a  room 
in  the  mission  solidly  packed  with  boxes,  bags 
and  barrels  of  cards. 

The  new  Sunday-school  grew  as  the  class 
had  grown.  The  mission  chapel  seated  four 
hundred,  but  often  five  hundred  children 
were  present.  A  group  sat  on  the  altar  steps, 
others  were  held  on  the  knees  of  their  com- 
panions, and  still  there  were  those  who  had 
to  stand  throughout  the  session.  Many  of 
them  came  shivering  in  grimy  rags  of  cloth- 
ing. Among  them  were  some  "pinched-faced 
little  folks ' '  who  sometimes  bartered  the  cher- 
ished cards  for  food.  One  cold  day  Mrs. 
Gamewell  saw  a  child  not  more  than  six  years 
old  give  her  card  to  a  pedler  while  he  put  in 
her  hands  a  cup  of  hot  soup.  Most  of  the  chil- 
dren came  from  homes  in  comparison  with 
which  the  chapel  was  ' '  a  paradise  of  warmth 
and  cheer.' '  For  them  the  Sunday-school 
hour  was  the  one  bit  of  color  in  seven  gloomy 
days.  At  noon  on  Sunday  groups  of  children 
began  to  gather  in  Filial  Piety  Lane,  until  at 
three  o  'clock,  when  the  bell  rang,  a  small  mul- 
titude pressed  through  the  gate.  And  these 
were  the  same  children  who  had  once  scam- 


106       Under  Marching  Orders 

pered  away  in  fright  whenever  the  queer  for- 
eigner came  toward  them. 

A  second  trouble  threatened,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  great  hope  dawned  in  Mrs. 
Gamewell's  boundless  horizon  of  purpose. 
The  mission  chapel  was  unmistakably  on  the 
verge  of  collapse.  The  walls  had  already 
cracked,  and  now  they  were  bulging  as  if 
ready  to  crumble.  The  heavy  tiled  roof 
leaned  dangerously.  Stays  were  put  against 
the  walls  and  extra  supports  under  the  roof. 
The  days  of  the  old  chapel  were  numbered 
with  fatal  certainty.  Thereupon  Mrs.  Game- 
well  dreamed  a  dream  and  set  herself  to  work 
out  its  achievement.  Her  first  move  was  to 
send  a  letter  to  the  mission  board  in  New 
York.    This  is  what  she  wrote : 

"We  are  in  trouble.  Let  me  tell  you  our 
trouble,  and  please  help  us.  The  mission 
chapel  is  giving  way.  We  began  to  prop  and 
mend  it  a  year  ago,  but  now  the  walls  lean 
worse,  the  cracks  are  wider,  and  the  timbers 
bend  more  threateningly.  If  you  could  stand 
by  the  old  weather-beaten  chapel  and  hear  its 
history,  so  interwoven  with  all  the  mission's 
joys  and  sorrows,  and  its  hopes  past  and 
future,  and  realize  how  much  depends  upon 


A  Chinese  Sunday  School      107 

our  mission  chapel,  your  voice  would  ring  out 
with  energy  of  speech  and  song  that  would 
win  for  us  the  help  we  need.  It  is  no  shame 
for  the  chapel  to  fall.  It  has  stood  nearly 
twenty  years  and  cost  only  two  thousand 
dollars  when  it  was  built.  We  knew  it  could 
not  be  long-lived  because  there  was  not  money 
enough  to  build  substantially.  It  is  now  the 
oldest  building  in  the  mission." 

The  letter  further  told  of  the  Sunday- 
school,  unique  in  all  China  for  its  size  and 
character.  If  the  church  should  fall  in  ruins, 
what  would  become  of  the  hundreds  of  chil- 
dren who  gathered  within  its  tottering  walls 
each  Sabbath  afternoon? 

"Do  you  understand  what  it  would  mean 
to  shut  our  gates  for  weeks  and  months  with 
no  promise  as  to  the  near  future  1  Suspicion 
would  follow  disappointment,  and  the  Chinese 
would  think  we  had  ceased  to  want  them  in 
our  chapel,  reasoning  in  the  same  way  as 
when,  believing  all  missionaries  to  be  doctors, 
they  think  we  do  not  cure  their  diseases  be- 
cause we  do  not  want  to.  Work  so  slowly 
built  up  would  fall  to  pieces  before  our  eyes 
and  we  would  be  powerless  to  help. 

"Besides  the  Sunday-school,  every  other 


108        Under  Marching  Orders 

department  of  our  Peking  work  depends  in  a 
measure  upon  the  chapel.  The  university 
students  meet  there  for  morning  prayers. 
Preaching  services  and  prayer-meetings 
depend  upon  it.  The  chapel  is  the  only 
assembly-room  for  funerals  and  weddings. 
Christmas  is  celebrated  there.  There  is  no 
place  for  commencement  exercises  but  in  the 
chapel.  What  will  become  of  these  interests 
if  the  chapel  falls?  When  it  was  built  its 
size  seemed  so  out  of  proportion  to  the  num- 
bers assembled,  and  the  work  then  under  way, 
that  our  friends  remarked:  'You  must  have 
great  faith  to  build  so  large  a  house  with  any 
hope  of  filling  it.'  The  faith  has  been 
rewarded.  The  work  has  so  outgrown  the 
chapel  accommodations  that  for  several  years 
we  have  felt  the  need  of  a  large  church,  but 
schools  and  country  work  have  been  in  such 
urgent  straits,  and  we  need  such  a  big  church 
next  time  one  is  built,  that  we  have  delayed 
asking  for  an  appropriation,  hoping  that  the 
time  might  come  when  we  could  ask,  with  a 
hope  of  receiving  it,  about  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars to  build  a  church  that  would  answer  mis- 
sion purposes  for  the  next  twenty  years.  If 
you  find  it  in  your  power  to  help  us  to  a  new 


A  Chinese  Sundat  School      109 

church,  you  will  be  sending  a  broad  beam  of 
cheer  into  the  shadows,  that  will  lift  us  up  and 
strengthen  us  to  a  degree  that  perhaps  you 
little  imagine." 

Mrs.  Gamewell 's  letter  was  a  challenge 
which  some  large-hearted  people  in  America 
could  not  refuse  to  accept.  By  return  mail 
the  first  instalment  of  a  large  sum  of  money 
was  forwarded  to  Peking,  and  later,  while  on 
a  furlough  in  America,  Mr.  Gamewell  secured 
the  help  of  a  competent  architect  to  prepare 
plans  for  the  new  church.  They  were  build- 
ing, as  they  thought,  for  twenty  years  at 
least,  and  the  workmanship  must  be  substan- 
tial. A  structure  made  of  brick  and  wood, 
with  seating  capacity  for  fifteen  hundred,  was 
designed,  and  Mr.  Gamewell  returned  to 
Peking  to  superintend  its  erection. 

In  course  of  time  the  wonderful  new  build- 
ing was  completed  and  christened  Asbury 
Church.  It  was  the  architectural  pride  of 
the  compound,  and  also  the  largest  Protes- 
tant church  in  the  whole  empire.  Almost 
immediately  the  Sunday-school  sent  its  regi- 
ments of  children  down  the  aisles  and  into  the 
seats  of  the  auditorium.  By  this  time  the 
school  had  become  so  famous  that  travelers 


110       Under  Marching  Orders 

visited  it  as  one  of  the  sights  of  Peking.  In- 
variably their  comment  was :  * '  There  is  noth- 
ing like  it  in  China. ' ' 

In  place  of  the  old  mocking  cry,  "foreign 
devil,' '  which  Mrs.  Gamewell  had  learned  to 
expect  every  time  she  ventured  beyond  the 
gate  of  the  compound,  children  on  every  side 
wistfully  inquired:  "Teacher,  teacher,  how 
many  days  to  next  Sunday ?"  On  the  streets 
could  be  heard  childish  voices  singing  in  the 
walled  courts  of  Chinese  houses,  "Jesus  loves 
me,"  "There's  a  land  that  is  fairer  than 
day,"  and  other  songs  which  Mrs.  Gamewell 
had  taught  them.  Do  you  wonder  that  her 
hands  and  brain  and  heart  were  full  of  eager 
work  and  abundant  joy  in  these  golden  years 
in  the  mission  in  Peking! 


THE   CENTER  OF  THE   CHINESE 
PUZZLE 


111 


VIII 

THE  CENTER  OF  THE  CHINESE 
PUZZLE 

"O,  East  is  East  and  West  is  West,  and  never  the  twain 

shall  meet, 
Till  earth  and  sky  stand  presently  at  God's  great  judgment 

seat; 
But  there  is  neither  East  nor  West,  border  nor  breed  nor 

birth, 
When  two  strong  men  stand  face  to  face,  though  they  come 

from  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

It  is  likely  that  you  have  seen  one  of  those 
stolid,  wooden  Dutch  dolls,  and  that  you  have 
taken  it  apart  only  to  find  another  within,  and 
so  on  down  to  the  last  doll  of  the  series.  Or 
surely  you  have  handled  those  soft,  pliable 
baskets,  each  one  of  which  in  succession  fits 
like  magic  into  the  next  larger  in  size.  If  you 
have  experimented  with  any  of  these  objects 
within  objects,  you  will  understand  the  con- 
struction of  the  northern  city  of  Peking.  It 
is  a  city  within  a  city,  within  a  third  city; 
each  enclosed  by  its  own  wall;  the  outside 
wall  being  sixteen  miles  in  circumference. 
Within  the  Tartar  city  is  the  Imperial  City 
and  within  the  Imperial  is  the   Forbidden 

113 


114       Under  Marching  Orders 

City.  These  three  cities  were  built  in  the 
thirteenth  century  by  that  famous  Mongol 
invader,  who  lives  anew  in  the  imagination 
of  him  who  reads  the  poem  of  Coleridge  which 
bears  the  hero's  name,  "Kublai  Khan." 
Just  south  of  the  Tartar  city  is  the  Chinese 
city,  the  original  Peking,  which  came  into 
being  some  three  thousand  years  ago.  Like 
a  pedestal  to  a  statue,  it  serves  as  a  base  to 
the  more  imposing  structure  of  the  Tartar 
city. 

Thus  Peking  entire  consists  of  four  cities 
in  one.  About  twenty-five  miles  of  grim, 
gray  wall  surround  the  whole.  At  intervals 
of  two  or  three  miles  are  the  massive  iron- 
bound  gates,  each  gate  surmounted  by  a  three- 
storied  tower,  rectangular  in  shape.  Around 
and  through  the  city  runs  an  ancient  canal 
with  water-gates.  Trains  of  camels  from  the 
deserts  of  the  north  carry  their  Mongol  riders 
through  the  streets.  Mule  litters,  slung  be- 
tween poles,  the  red  sedan-chair  of  the  bride 
and  the  white  chair  in  the  procession  of  the 
dead,  the  approach  of  each  heralded  by  music, 
carts  and  wheelbarrows,  horses  ridden  by 
foreigners,  and  "  darting,  dodging  pedes- 
trians' '  vie  with  one  another  for  passage 


The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle  115 


through  the  crowded  thoroughfares.    Green- 
tiled  temples,  with  their  gray-gowned  priests, 


TARTAR 


I  MPERIAL 
CI  TY 


a 


n 


Forbid- 
den 

City 


IF 

c  i  It  y 


c  h  I 


N    E  S  E 
I    T  Y 


Peking,  a  City  Within  a  City 

stand  at  ease  and  in  musty  splendor.  And  in 
the  center  of  all  this  strange  life  rise  the  pink 
walls  of  the  Forbidden  City,  shielding  from 


116       Under  Marching  Orders 

ruthless  eyes  the  royal  palace  buildings.  For 
its  myriad  forms  of  life,  its  ancient  magnifi- 
cence, its  brooding  mystery,  Peking  becomes 
indeed  the  "goal  which  beckons  to  every 
one. ' ' 

In  1644,  when  the  early  settlers  were  break- 
ing soil  in  America,  the  long  line  of  Chinese 
monarchs  gave  way  before  the  oldtime  foe 
from  the  north,  and  the  Manchu  Tartars 
claimed  the  Dragon  throne.  Unto  this  day 
they  have  been  the  royal  family  of  China, 
calling  their  reign  the  Ch'in  or  Great  Pure 
Dynasty. 

During  the  years  when  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Game- 
well  lived  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  the 
Tartar  city,  where  most  of  the  foreigners  had 
their  dwellings,  the  greatest  of  the  Manchu 
rulers  was  secluded  behind  the  vermilion 
pillars  and  underneath  the  green  and  gold 
ceilings  of  the  royal  palace.  It  was  the  em- 
press dowager,  or  as  she  might  be  called,  the 
Chinese  sphinx.  A  perplexing  puzzle  has 
she  been  to  the  thousands  of  Westerners  who 
have  lived  in  her  realm,  and  to  those  who, 
across  the  seas,  have  read  of  her  strange 
deeds.  It  is  a  question  if  the  Chinese  them- 
selves have  understood  her  perverse  freaks 


The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle  117 

or  have  been  prepared  for  her  sudden,  mad 
whims.  People  have  held  the  most  curiously 
diverse  opinions  regarding  her.  Some  have 
called  her  the  " grand  old  woman"  of  China, 
while  others  have  likened  her  to  heartless, 
brutal  Catherine  of  Eussia.  She  might  have 
been  a  composite  of  Queen  Jezebel  and  Queen 
Elizabeth,  this  capricious  and  yet  far-sighted 
woman,  who  held  sway  over  one  fourth  of  the 
human  race. 

The  empress  dowager  was  the  daughter  of 
a  Manchu  soldier  of  high  rank,  though  not  of 
royal  descent.  Since  she  was  a  Tartar 
maiden,  her  feet  were  not  bound.  Her  hair 
and  eyes  were  black,  and  her  skin  a  rich 
olive.  A  kind  of  fiery  intelligence  shone  in 
her  face. 

As  she  grew  into  womanhood,  the  emperor, 
Hsien  Feng,  chose  her  for  one  of  his  wives. 
When  a  son  was  born  in  the  West  Palace 
where  Tzu  Hsi  lived,  the  emperor,  contrary 
to  all  custom,  advanced  the  mother  to  the 
position  of  empress,  by  the  side  of  the  reign- 
ing empress.  At  the  death  of  the  emperor, 
the  boy  T'ung  Chih  succeeded  his  father,  and 
the  two  empresses  were  appointed  joint  re- 
gents.    In  1875  T'ung  Chih  died,  and  his 


118        Under  Marching  Orders 

cousin  Kuang  Hsu  was  selected  by  the  council 
of  princes  as  the  new  ruler  of  China.  When 
four  years  old  he  climbed  with  true  imperial 
dignity  into  the  " chair  of  state.' '  His  sub- 
jects bowed  low  before  him,  knocking  their 
heads  on  the  ground  in  token  of  loyalty.  In 
1881  the  empress  of  the  East  Palace  died, 
and  empress  dowager  Tzu  Hsi  became  sole 
regent. 

When  Kuang  Hsu  reached  the  age  of  nine- 
teen, according  to  the  Chinese  reckoning 
which  counts  a  child  a  year  old  at  birth,  a 
decree  was  issued  to  the  effect  that  her 
majesty  the  empress  dowager  considered  him 
fit  to  rule.  Upon  this  not  wholly  flattering 
declaration,  he  said  (or  was  made  to  say) 
that  "the  announcement  caused  him  to 
tremble  as  if  in  mid-ocean,  with  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  land."  After  uttering  these 
sentiments  befitting  a  modest  young  emperor, 
Kuang  Hsu  mounted  the  throne,  and  the 
empress  dowager  withdrew  behind  the  scenes, 
to  await  the  cue  for  her  reappearance  on  the 
stage  of  action. 

Now  it  afterwards  appeared  that  Kuang 
Hsu  had  a  mind  of  his  own,  and  for  some 
years  he  had  his  way  in  the  ancient  em- 


The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle  119 

pire,  in  spite  of  his  contriving  aunt.  It  was 
due  to  the  presence  of  the  wide-awake  "West- 
erner in  the  sleepy  Eastern  world,  that  he  be- 
came the  youthful  and  hot-headed  reformer, 
who  for  a  brief  time  was  a  striking  figure  in 
Chinese  affairs.  When  he  was  a  small  boy, 
humored  and  indulged  by  the  palace  attend- 
ants, a  store  was  opened  on  Legation  Street 
in  the  foreign  quarter  of  Peking,  which  ac- 
tually had  something  to  do  with  the  life  story 
of  the  emperor  and  his  empire.  The  royal 
boy  loved  toys,  and  the  more  complex  they 
were  the  more  delighted  was  he,  particularly 
if  he  could  take  them  to  pieces  to  see  what 
made  "the  wheels  go  wound."  His  rooms 
were  filled  with  watches  which  could  strike 
the  hour,  eccentric  clocks  which  would  strike 
to  music,  or  from  which  a  bird  would  emerge 
and  announce  the  time  in  his  own  character- 
istic call. 

As  the  boy  grew  older,  tales  of  unending 
wonder  reached  his  ever-open  ears;  tales  of 
the  telegraph  and  telephone,  the  electric  and 
steam  cars  of  the  Western  world.  Naught 
would  content  the  imperious  lad  until  a  small 
railroad  was  built  along  the  shore  of  the 
beautiful  Lotus  Lake  in  the  palace  grounds. 


120        Under  Marching  Orders 

Official  messengers  were  sent  to  Peking  Uni^ 
versity,  refusing  to  return  to  the  palace  with- 
out the  coveted  "talk-box"  (phonograph)  of 
which  the  emperor  had  heard.  Grapho- 
phones,  X-ray  apparatus,  and  everything 
known  to  modern  inventive  genius  were 
sought  by  the  curious  young  ruler. 

Soon  he  began  to  grant  permission  to  for- 
eign companies  to  build  railroads,  to  estab- 
lish telephone  and  telegraph  systems,  and 
to  operate  steamship  lines.  Slow-going 
officials  in  distant  parts  of  the  empire  were 
shocked  beyond  recovery  to  receive  imperial 
edicts  in  the  form  of  telegrams.  Formerly, 
stately  documents  written  with  the  vermilion 
pencil  on  yellow  paper  were  delivered  by 
courtly  couriers  who  spent  a  month  on  the 
journey.  Ignorant  peasants  believed  that 
the  rusty  rain-water  dripping  from  the  wires 
was  the  blood  of  outraged  spirits  who  would 
take  speedy  revenge.  In  the  province  of  Hu- 
nan they  sawed  down  the  poles  and  cut  the 
wires.  The  "fire-wheel  cart"  (steam  engine) 
was  rudely  disturbing  the  earth  dragon  and 
would  bring  sure  disaster  upon  the  land. 
When  the  railway  from  Tientsin  to  Peking 
was  built  in  1897,  peasants  and  coolies  firmly 


The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle  121 

believed  that  the  piers  of  the  bridge  over  the 
Pei  Ho,  as  well  as  the  sleepers  for  the  entire 
eighty  miles  of  track,  were  laid  on  the  bodies 
of  Chinese  infants.  Verily  the  enterprising 
Kuang  Hsu  was  upsetting  the  peace  of  mind 
of  his  subjects,  and  his  day  of  reckoning  was 
drawing  nigh. 

When  the  empress  dowager  reached  her 
sixtieth  year  of  age,  the  Christian  women  of 
China,  about  eleven  thousand  in  number,  sent 
an  edition  of  the  New  Testament,  printed  in 
large  type,  and  bound  in  silver  and  gold,  as 
a  birthday  gift  to  her  majesty.  Soon  after 
the  casket  containing  the  present  had  been 
delivered  at  the  palace,  Kuang  Hsii  sent 
messengers  to  the  American  Bible  Society  to 
procure  copies  of  the  Bible  for  himself.  In 
the  compound  in  Filial  Piety  Lane  the  wel- 
come news  was  heard  that  yonder  in  the  For- 
bidden City  the  emperor  was  studying  the 
Bible  daily,  that  he  was  learning  to  pray,  and 
that  he  was  willing  to  have  Christianity 
taught  in  his  wide  domains.  The  mission- 
aries hoped  that  the  openmindedness  of  the 
young  ruler  would  infuse  new  sap  and  life 
into  the  old,  withered  empire  of  China. 

Kuang  Hsu's  next  move  was  to  reach  out 


122        Under  Marching  Orders 

for  all  the  foreign  books  which  had  been 
translated  into  the  Chinese  language.  He 
collected  every  book  on  education,  science, 
and  religion,  published  in  the  land.  For  three 
years  he  pored  over  his  books,  and  as  a  result, 
issued  his  edicts  of  reform — those  edicts 
which  made  the  people  sit  up  and  rub  their 
eyes  and  finally  start  forth  in  vigorous 
protest. 

The  first  decree  established  a  great,  central 
university  in  Peking,  of  which  one  of  the  mis- 
sionaries was  invited  to  become  president. 
In  all  the  colleges  and  universities  founded 
by  Kuang  Hsu,  the  presidents  were  men  who 
went  to  China  as  missionaries.  They  were 
the  keenest  scholars  among  the  foreigners, 
and  also  knew  China  and  her  people  most 
closely.  Throughout  the  spring  and  summer 
of  1898,  edict  after  edict  proceeded  in  sharp 
succession  from  the  throne.  One  proclaimed 
that  schools  should  be  founded  in  every  im- 
portant city,  another,  that  Buddhist  temples 
should  be  turned  into  schoolhouses. 

Kuang  Hsu  became  impatient  if  his  com- 
mands were  not  carried  out  at  once.  In  his 
enthusiasm  he  forgot  that  great  reforms  do 
not  come  in  a  day,  even  in  a  lifetime,  no 


^jm 


*Oa 


By  permission  of  Dr. 


Headland,  author  of  Court  Life  in  ('/,:• 

Empress  Dowageb 


The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle  123 

matter  if  the  heart  of  the  reformer  breaks  in 
the  delay.  If  only  he  conld  have  possessed 
that  snre  vision  of  the  future,  together  with 
a  mighty  patience  such  as  dominated  Mrs. 
Gamewell  and  her  associates,  he  might  have 
been  the  prophet  soul  who  led  his  people  out 
of  darkness  into  light.  But  that  type  of 
leadership  belongs  to  the  Christian  faith,  and 
Kuang  Hsu  was  just  emerging  out  of  hea- 
thenism. In  a  tumultuous  time  he  stood  for 
what  he  believed,  and  that  is  the  beginning 
of  heroism.  The  trouble  was  he  had 
attempted  to  do  what  Mr.  Kipling  calls 
"hustling  the  East."  It  was  as  if  he  had 
sought  to  make  the  slow-moving  camels  of  the 
desert  travel  with  the  speed  of  a  Western 
mail  train. 

At  this  dramatic  moment  the  empress  dow- 
ager appeared  again  on  the  scene  of  action. 
In  sullen  resentment  at  being  set  aside,  she 
had  been  amusing  herself  with  her  flowers 
and  boats  in  I  Ho  park.  But  now  she  would 
once  more  play  her  part  in  the  exciting  events 
of  her  country's  history.  A  number  of  dis- 
satisfied officials  and  imperial  clansmen 
rallied  round  her,  and  plotted  the  over- 
throw of  Kuang  Hsu.    Hearing  of  the  con- 


124       Under  Marching  Orders 

spiracy,  he  tried  to  outwit  them,  but  a  trusted 
official  betrayed  him  into  the  hands  of  his 
enemies,  and  the  new  day  for  China  came  to 
a  sudden,  stormy  close.  Kuang  Hsu.  was 
dethroned  and  practically  made  a  prisoner  in 
an  island  palace.  The  empress  dowager  be- 
came the  ruler  of  the  nation.  Upon  the  down- 
fall of  Kuang  Hsu  trouble  for  the  foreigners 
began. 

With  the  spitefulness  of  the  old  Greek 
Furies,  the  empress  Tzu  Hsi  set  herself  to 
undo  all  that  Kuang  Hsu  hadt  done.  The 
official  newspaper,  Peking  Gazette,  fairly 
"bristled"  with  her  angry  edicts.  She 
crushed  every  reform  measure  which  had 
come  into  existence.  The  young  man  who 
was  the  chief  adviser  of  Kuang  Hsu  barely 
escaped  to  Tientsin  and  then  by  steamer 
south.  For  more  than  a  year  the  empress 
offered  large  rewards  for  his  capture,  alive 
or  dead.  Because  her  wrath  failed  to  reach 
this  leading  offender,  she  seized  his  younger 
brother  and  ordered  his  execution.  On  Sep- 
tember 28,  1898,  he,  with  five  other  young 
men,  was  beheaded;  six  martyrs  who  gave 
their  lives  for  the  future  liberty  of  their 
country.    As  they  went  to  their  death,  they 


The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle  125 

declared  that  multitudes  of  others  would 
some  day  arise  to  take  their  places. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  eagle  eye  of  the 
empress  dowager  was  turned  toward  the  for- 
eigners, the  cause  of  all  this  upheaval  in 
the  old,  placid  empire.  Who  had  ever  desired 
their  presence  in  the  celestial  kingdom? 
They  had  come  to  trade,  and  the  Chinese, 
though  born  traders,  scorned  the  practise  as 
far  below  their  scholarly  dignity.  They  had 
also  come  to  entice  China  into  that  bond  which 
exists  between  all  civilized  countries,  the 
"sisterhood  of  nations."  But  China,  like  a 
blind,  foolish  child,  preferred  to  be  let  alone. 
She  hated  the  very  word  "treaty,"  for  it 
meant  that  she  had  been  forced  into  relations 
with  people  whose  manner  of  life  she  spurned. 
"When  a  thing  is  as  good  as  it  can  be,  you 
cannot  make  it  any  better. ' '  This  was  exactly 
what  nearly  all  the  people  of  China  thought 
concerning  their  country. 

Moreover  the  foreigner  was  responsible 
for  these  detested  reforms.  And  worse  yet, 
some  of  the  European  nations,  particularly 
Germany,  were  trying  to  seize  Chinese  ter- 
ritory and  call  it  their  own.  From  a  Chinese 
point  of  view,  the  foreigners  were  bent  on 


126       Under  Marching  Orders 

devouring  China  piecemeal.  "What  could  the 
Dragon  do  but  turn  upon  his  enemies  f 

Thus  the  dowager  empress  let  her  wild 
fury  run  away  with  her  reason.  Down  deep 
in  her  heart  she  knew  that  her  country  owed 
a  vast  deal  to  outside  nations,  but  her  intelli- 
gence went  down  before  her  childish  peevish- 
ness and  her  lust  for  power.  The  only  way 
to  keep  the  Manchus  on  the  throne  was  to  side 
with  the  conservatives  against  the  foreigner. 
And  so  the  explosion,  which  this  woman  by  a 
single  stroke  of  the  vermilion  pencil  could 
have  prevented,  burst  in  a  whirl  of  frenzy 
about  the  foreigners  and  Chinese  Christians. 

In  the  neighboring  province  of  Shan-tung, 
a  famous  secret  society,  of  which  there  are 
many  in  China,  was  drilling  its  troops,  thus 
making  ready  to  rout  all  foreigners  out  of 
China,  perhaps  even  the  Manchu  rulers  them- 
selves. Buddhist  temples  were  turned  into 
camps,  and  excited  men  were  practising 
strange  rites  in  every  village.  The  organ- 
ization was  known  as  the  I  Ho  Ch'uan  (Fists 
of  Eighteous  Harmony),  or  the  Great  Sword 
Society.  As  the  Chinese  word  for  " fists' ' 
signifies  wrestling  or  boxing,  they  became 
known  as  Boxers. 


|»iE<fr«*^g^»l*»***<«i| 


"TV 


^St 


jf^^<lt4»Wfllfig<Ki;  5  jggggj 


The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle  127 

They  claimed  that  supernatural  power  was 
granted  them  and  that  neither  swords  nor 
bullets  could  inflict  injury.  In  the  temples 
of  the  gods  they  went  into  spasms  and 
trances,  in  order  to  become  possessed  with 
the  spirit  of  some  hero  long  since  dead. 
Sundry  charms  were  repeated  to  protect  them 
against  gun,  cannon,  and  sword.  "Face  to 
the  southeast,  with  left  hand  perform  the 
Three  Mountain  charm,  with  the  right  per- 
form the  Twisted  Dragon,  mark  on  ground 
two  crosses,  tread  with  two  feet — read  the 
charm  once,  follow  with  one  knocking  of  head 
— at  least  read  seven  times,  at  most  ten  times. 
The  gods  will  then  take  possession  of  your 
body. ' '  This  and  similar  exercises  were  sup- 
posed to  make  the  charm  take  effect.  Then 
it  was  that  ' '  the  gods  and  the  8,000,000  spir- 
its" would  come  to  their  aid  "to  sweep  the 
empire  clean  of  all  foreigners.' ' 

"Until  the  foreigner  is  exterminated,  the  rain  can  never 
visit  us." 

"Within  three  years  all  will  be  accomplished." 

"The  Volunteer  Associated  Fists  will  burn  down  the  foreign 
buildings.  Foreign  goods  of  every  variety  they  will  de- 
stroy. They  will  extirpate  the  evil  demons,  and  establish 
right  teaching, — the  honor  of  the  spirits  and  the  sages." 

"Scholars  and  gentlemen  must  by  no  means  esteem  this  a 
light  and  idle  curse,  and  so  disregard  its  warning." 


128       Under  Marching  Orders 

These  were  phrases  on  some  of  the  Boxer 
posters,  circulated  freely  in  northeastern 
China.  The  Boxer  flag  contained  four  dread 
characters:  "Pao  Ch'ing  Mieh  Yang" 
("Protect  the  empire:  exterminate  foreign- 
ers"). Bed  cloth  was  at  a  premium,  since  it 
was  the  sign  of  revolt,  and  was  in  great 
demand  as  a  Boxer  emblem. 

Close  upon  the  capital  city  the  Boxer  hosts 
pressed.  The  whole  region  between  Pao-ting 
fu  and  Peking  was  covered  with  Boxer 
camps.  About  the  city  of  Cho-chou,  thirty 
thousand  Boxers  were  assembled,  practising 
their  magic  rites  by  day,  and  by  night  eating 
the  farmers  of  the  neighborhood  out  of  house 
and  home.  They  burned  railroad  stations 
and  tore  up  the  tracks,  burned  and  looted 
property,  and  even  killed  Chinese  Christians. 
And  at  last  Boxer  troops  were  drilling 
within  the  walls  of  Peking,  even  on  the 
official  drill-grounds,  and  in  the  palaces  of 
the  nobles.  In  a  few  short  weeks,  the  Boxers 
had  become  the  "men  of  the  hour." 

Were  the  foreigners  sleeping,  that  they 
did  not  realize  danger  was  so  close?  Or  did 
they  lean  upon  the  word  of  that  two-faced 
empress  who  assured  them  that  the  Boxer 


The  Center  of  the  Chinese  Puzzle   129 

movement  was  naught  but  the  work  of  boys 
and  peasants?  Count  no  more  upon  that 
fickle  ruler  who  promises  but  does  not  fulfil ! 
Her  mind  was  now  made  up,  and  the  die  was 
cast  for  the  doom  of  the  foreigner.  The 
Boxer  uprising  was  viewed  as  a  dangerous 
force  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  unless  it  was 
directed  against  the  foreigner  it  might  turn 
against  the  Manchu  dynasty,  and  the  dowager 
empress  would  lose  both  "face"  and  power? 
Between  these  alternatives  it  did  not  take 
long  to  choose,  and  she  hesitated  not  a 
moment. 

Meanwhile,  what  has  become  of  Mrs.  Game- 
well  in  the  midst  of  all  this  furor  and  excite- 
ment? Let  us  brave  the  taunts  of  "foreign 
devil"  which  will  bear  down  upon  us  like  a 
chorus  of  curses,  and  walk  boldly  through 
the  streets  of  Peking  to  the  compound  in 
Filial  Piety  Lane. 


BOXERS  AND  BARRICADES 


1S1 


IX 

BOXERS  AND  BARRICADES 

"A  glorious  company,  the  flower  of  men, 
To  serve  as  model  for  the  mighty  world, 
And  be  the  fair  beginning  of  a  time." 

On  the  peak  of  the  dome  of  Asbury  Church, 
in  the  compound  of  the  Methodist  mission,  a 
solitary  figure  was  outlined  against  the  sky. 
The  Boxers  in  the  streets  below  gazed  warily 
up  at  the  unwonted  presence.  In  their  camps 
the  story  was  told  and  believed,  that  a  strange 
being  had  come  from  America  and  alighted 
upon  the  tower  of  the  church.  Further  drill 
in  magic  would  be  necessary  to  give  them 
power  to  cope  with  this  mysterious  guardian 
of  the  foreigners. 

What  they  saw  was  in  reality  the  sentinel, 
who,  in  the  heat  of  day  and  the  dew  of  night, 
kept  unbroken  watch  of  the  enemies'  move- 
ments. In  the  space  of  a  few  days,  the  beauti- 
ful church  which  Mrs.  Game  well  had  con- 
ceived had  been  converted  into  a  citadel  of 
war.  Bricks  had  been  piled  upon  the  iron  roof 
to  be  hurled  upon  the  foe  in  case  of  direct 

133 


134       Under  Marching  Orders 

attack.  The  doors  had  been  strengthened 
by  galvanized  iron  plates.  Panes  of  glass 
had  been  removed  from  the  windows,  and 
the  space  barricaded  with  bricks,  and  loop- 
holed.  Since  it  was  possible  that  the  dwell- 
ing-honses  might  be  bnrned,  trunks  were 
borne  to  the  church  for  safe-keeping.  Some 
one  said  that  the  "grand  trunk' '  line  ran 
everywhere,  from  the  vestibule  through 
every  aisle  even  to  the  platform  itself.  On 
the  floor  in  front  of  the  pulpit  stood  a 
row  of  jars  large  as  barrels,  and  filled  to 
the  brim  with  water.  The  water  had  been 
purified  by  boiling  in  huge  caldrons  on  fur- 
naces built  in  the  court.  On  two  memorable 
Sundays,  the  preacher  was  surrounded  by 
cans  of  butter,  hundreds  of  boiled  eggs, 
stacks  of  Chinese  biscuits,  cases  of  condensed 
milk,  as  well  as  baby  cradles  and  mattresses 
innumerable.  All  these  preparations  had 
been  made  against  the  day  when  the  people 
should  have  to  take  refuge  within  the  church, 
and  there  join  in  one  last  desperate  fight  for 
their  lives. 

Across  the  streets  in  front  and  at  the  rear 
of  the  church,  barricades  had  been  con- 
structed.   Bricks  for  all  these  hasty  fortifica- 


Scenes  in  the  Methodist  Compound 
Barbed  Wire  in  Front  of  Asbury  Church 
Captain  Hall  and  the  Key 

The  Auditorium  as  a  Storehouse 
On  Guard 


Boxers  and  Barricades         135 

tions  had  been  taken  from  walls  and  parti- 
tions, and  sometimes  had  to  be  transported 
from  one  end  of  the  mission  area  to  the  other. 
Boys  and  women  carried  piles  of  bricks  on 
their  clasped  hands,  or  in  baskets  swung  on 
poles  over  their  shoulders.  Wee  children 
toddled  along,  each  carrying  one,  two,  three 
bricks  according  to  his  size.  All  the  flag  tiles 
from  the  court  pavements  had  been  uprooted 
and  used  for  cross  barricades.  Deep  ditches 
had  been  dug,  and  first  and  second  lines  of 
defense  marked  out.  Barbed-wire  fences 
bristled  behind  walls  likely  to  be  scaled.  The 
gates,  except  the  one  needed  for  entrance  and 
exit,  had  been  solidly  covered  with  brickwork. 
These  means  of  protection  had  been 
planned  and  directed  by  Mr.  Gamewell,  who 
was  a  general  by  instinct  as  well  as  a  civil 
engineer  by  training.  Twenty  marines,  under 
command  of  Captain  Hall,  had  been  sent  by 
Mr.  Conger,  the  United  States  minister  in 
Peking,  as  a  military  guard  for  the  com- 
pound, which  had  become  a  refuge  for  scores 
of  missionaries  and  native  Christians.  Mrs. 
Gamewell  said  that  "  their  hearts  beat  high 
with  patriotic  pride  when  they  saw  the  boys 
in  blue  march  through  the  gates." 


136       Under  Marching  Orders 

At  dusk  of  the  day  previous  to  the  arrival 
of  the  marines,  the  8th  of  June,  the  other 
mission  compounds  in  Peking  had  been 
abandoned,  and  the  missionaries  with  their 
Chinese  adherents  had  sought  the  shelter  of 
the  Methodist  compound.  In  the  darkness  of 
night,  a  long  line  of  carts  bore  the  fugitives 
from  the  Congregational  mission  at  T'ung- 
chou  to  Peking.  Within  three  days  their 
deserted  buildings  were  looted  and  burned 
by  the  very  soldiers  sent  to  protect  them. 
Hundreds  of  Christians  and  servants  of 
foreigners  were  massacred  within  two  miles 
of  the  palace  buildings.  Heartbreaking 
stories  were  told  by  the  refugees  who  stag- 
gered each  day  into  the  courts  of  the  Metho- 
dist mission.  Homes  had  been  burned, 
families  separated  in  the  desperate  flight 
for  life,  and  a  cruel  death  had  overtaken 
many.  In  all,  seventy  British  and  American 
missionaries,  and  nearly  seven  hundred 
Chinese  Christians,  filled  every  inch  of 
space  in  the  compound  in  Filial  Piety 
Lane.  Boxer  mobs  blew  their  horns  and 
uttered  their  demoniacal  howls  outside  the 
gates,  while  within,  twenty  American  marines 
constituted  the   entire  military  protection. 


Boxers  and  Barricades         137 

One  great  hope  colored  all  these  unquiet 
days.  On  the  10th  of  June,  in  response  to  a 
telegram  from  Peking  asking  for  more  troops, 
several  hundred  foreign  soldiers,  led  by  Cap- 
tain McCalla,  had  fought  their  way  to  the 
railway  train,  and  had  left  Tientsin  for 
Peking.  The  arrival  of  this  relief  army  was 
daily,  hourly  expected.  In  the  center  of  the 
compound,  a  large  tree,  the  play-house  of  the 
children  in  days  of  peace,  was  used  as  a  bul- 
letin board.  Every  scrap  of  news  from  the 
outside  world  was  posted  on  the  trunk  of  the 
"  giant  tree."  But  the  "outside  world"  was 
rapidly  drifting  beyond  reach.  Telegraph 
lines  had  been  cut  in  all  directions,  save  the 
single  wire  to  Kalgan  on  the  Great  Wall. 
When  that  last  thread  of  connection  was 
broken,  Peking  was  isolated  indeed. 

On  the  13th  of  June,  the  following  letter 
from  the  United  States  minister,  Mr.  Conger, 
was  read  from  the  tree  bulletin:  "My  dear 
Mr.  Gamewell:  A  note  just  received  from 
Captain  McCalla,  written  at  four  p.  m.,  yes- 
terday, reports  him  with  sixteen  hundred 
men  of  all  nationalities  at  Lang-fang  [thirty 
miles  from  Peking],  pushing  on  as  fast  as 
they  can  repair  the  road. ' !    That  was  the  last 


138       Under  Marching  Orders 

message  received  from  the  advancing  army 
for  many  a  weary  day. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  the 
Methodist  street  chapel,  a  few  hundred 
yards  away,  outside  the  compound,  was 
demolished  by  the  mob.  The  usual  Boxer 
method  was  to  tear  down  a  part  of  the  frame- 
work, pour  thereon  quart  after  quart  of 
kerosene,  and  then  apply  the  torch.  Through- 
out the  night,  Mrs.  Game  well,  with  a  group 
of  anxious  watchers,  looked  out  upon  the 
flaming,  fearful  sky.  It  was  red  with  the 
reflection  of  burning  buildings.  Two  old  his- 
toric cathedrals  belonging  to  the  Eoman  Cath- 
olic Church  were  utterly  destroyed,  many 
Christians  dying  in  the  fire.  All  the  property 
in  Peking  which  belonged  to  the  foreigners, 
except  that  defended  by  foreign  troops,  was 
burned  to  ashes,  either  during  that  night  of 
destruction,  or  within  the  next  few  days.  A 
veritable  fire  demon  seemed  to  possess  the 
Boxers,  and  to  spur  them  to  madness. 

On  the  16th,  the  climax  of  the  great  burn- 
ing was  reached.  Wild  flames  leaped  up 
from  the  other  side  of  the  southern  wall,  near 
the  Ch'ien,  the  gate  through  which,  twice 
each  year,  the  emperor  rides  forth  in  his 


Boxers  and  Barricades  139 

elephant  cart  on  his  way  to  worship  in  the 
temple  of  Heaven  in  the  southern  city.  In 
this  locality  were  the  huge  banking  estab- 
lishments, fur  stores,  and  the  wealthiest 
business  houses  in  Peking.  The  Boxer  mob 
had  set  fire  to  a  mill  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
the  high  wind  drove  the  flames  beyond  their 
control.  In  terror  they  cried  to  the  fire  god 
to  intercede  and  spare  the  great  tower  on 
the  wall  above  the  city  gate.  The  tower  rose 
more  than  one  hundred  feet  above  the  ground, 
and  was  speedily  a  tall  pillar  of  fire,  piercing 
the  sky  with  its  shaft  of  flame.  The  loss  from 
this  one  fire  was  computed  to  be  at  least 
$5,000,000. 

Close  to  the  wall  in  the  southern  city,  wild 
hordes  of  Boxers  made  the  night  hideous 
with  their  fiendish  noise:  "Kill  the  foreign 
devil !  Kill !  Kill !  Kill ! ' '  Only  a  handful 
of  unreliable  Manchu  guards  and  the  iron 
gate  intervened  between  the  murderous  mob 
and  the  foreigners  a  few  rods  away  in  the 
northern  city.  Realizing  this,  the  committee 
in  charge  of  the  compound  went  at  nightfall 
to  the  gate,  interviewed  the  official,  and  won 
his  promise  to  close  the  gate  early,  and  refuse 
to  open  it  to  the  mob.    To  make  doubly  sure, 


140        Under  Marching  Orders 

this  daring  committee  actually  requested  that 
after  the  gate  was  locked  the  key  should  be 
brought  to  the  mission  compound  and  left 
there  until  morning.  The  gate-keeper  con- 
sented to  the  amazing  proposition,  and  the 
bar  of  iron  two  feet  long  was  in  Captain 
Hall's  keeping  each  night  as  long  as  the  mis- 
sion premises  were  occupied! 

During  these  first  feverish  nights,  sleep 
wandered  far  from  Mrs.  Gamewell's  eyes. 
Every  instant  of  the  daylight  was  tense  with 
hard  work,  and  the  darkness  should  naturally 
have  brought  exhaustion  and  rest.  Instead, 
an  excitement  which  she  said  was  like  calm- 
ness, drove  weariness  and  sleep  to  the  winds. 
In  the  depths  of  the  night  and  in  the  heart  of 
the  moonlight,  she  watched  the  stars  and 
stripes  float  in  easy  grace  from  the  roof  of 
the  church.  She  walked  with  the  sentinel  on 
his  beat  and  led  him  on  to  talk  of  home,  or  of 
his  life  in  the  Philippines.  In  these  wakeful 
hours  began  that  staunch  comradeship  with 
the  soldiers  which  made  her  their  friend  and 
heroine  through  all  the  dark  days  to  come. 

After  two  or  three  nights  of  such  vigil, 
sleep  claimed  its  own,  and  Mrs.  Game  well 
was  led  by  a  friend  into  a  quiet  corner  for 


Boxers  and  Barricades         141 

her  sorely  needed  rest.  The  deep  sleep  of 
utter  exhaustion  conquered,  and  it  was  some 
hours  before  she  awoke  in  the  midst  of  an 
ominous  stillness.  She  hastened  to  a  window 
and  accosted  a  soldier  who  was  passing  that 
way.  He  told  her  that  the  alarm  had  been 
given,  and  all  the  people  except  the  guards 
were  shut  inside  the  church.  A  stout  barri- 
cade with  a  closed  gate  was  between  her  and 
the  church.  There  she  was,  alone  with  the 
fighting  men  in  the  exposed  front  of  battle, 
if  battle  there  should  be.  But  the  threatening 
mob  drifted  gradually  away  from  the  gates 
of  the  compound,  and  that  danger  was  past. 
After  this  forlorn  experience  of  Mrs. 
GramewelPs,  a  more  thorough  organization 
was  completed  in  the  mission  camp.  Origi- 
nally the  bell  in  the  tower  had  rung  out  the 
alarms.  Soon  it  was  found  expedient  to  have 
a  quieter  signal,  such  as  would  give  no  inkling 
to  the  foe  outside  of  the  preparations  within. 
Consequently,  women  sentinels  were  sta- 
tioned on  the  verandas,  each  for  a  watch  of 
two  hours'  duration.  If  an  attack  seemed 
imminent,  a  soldier  was  to  warn  one  of  these 
sentinels,  who  would  spread  the  word 
throughout  the  compound,  until  each  and  all 


142        Under  Marching  Orders 

had  taken  their  places  in  the  silent,  swiftly 
moving  line  to  the  church.  This  was  the  plan 
in  operation  on  the  night  when  Mrs.  Game- 
well  was  sleeping  her  first  long  sleep  since 
the  siege  began.  When  it  was  discovered 
that  a  person  could  be  overlooked  in  the  or- 
derly confusion,  a  new  kind  of  guard  was 
appointed.  In  each  house  some  one  was  des- 
ignated, whose  duty  it  was  to  make  sure  that 
no  one  was  left  behind  in  the  general  exodus 
to  the  church. 

As  the  heat  of  those  summer  days  grew 
more  stifling,  Mrs.  Gamewell  looked  sym- 
pathetically at  the  marines  clad  in  their 
heavy  winter  uniforms.  The  order  for  shore 
duty  had  come  suddenly  one  day  while  they 
were  at  dinner  on  board  the  war-ships. 
There  was  not  a  moment  for  change  of  cloth- 
ing, as  the  call  to  Peking  was  imperative.  In 
this  emergency  Mrs.  GamewelPs  ready  brain 
conceived  a  scheme  whereby  the  sweltering 
soldiers  should  be  relieved.  "With  money 
solicited  from  the  missionaries,  an  armed 
group  of  Chinese  and  foreigners  was  dis- 
patched into  the  nearby  street  to  purchase 
light-weight  material  from  the  stores  which 
had  not   vet  been  abandoned.     Yards   and 


Boxers  and  Barricades         143 

yards  of  navy  blue  drilling,  and  dozens  and 
dozens  of  brass  buttons  were  procured,  and 
the  women  set  busily  to  work.  A  suit  of  Mr, 
GamewelFs  was  ripped  to  pieces  for  a  pat- 
tern. Two  women  did  the  cutting,  while 
several  basted.  Mrs.  Game  well  acted  as 
fitter,  taking  the  garments  to  the  soldiers' 
headquarters,  and  pinning  and  fitting  until 
each  suit  was  adjusted  to  its  prospective 
owner.  For  Mrs.  Gamewell,  as  she  said, 
1  '  there  was  patriotic  fervor  in  the  pinning  of 
every  pin  that  pinned  the  seams  of  those  gar- 
ments of  blue,  fervor  born  of  the  fires  kindled 
during  the  war  that  raged  in  girlhood  days, 
when  our  town  on  the  Mississippi  was  always 
a-flutter  with  flags,  and  full  of  arriving  and 
departing  troops.' ' 

At  first  the  soldiers  were  so  eager  to  don 
their  new  uniforms,  that  suits  delivered  at 
headquarters  were  instantly  appropriated, 
regardless  of  fit.  Such  genuine  appreciation 
was  gratifying  to  be  sure,  but  the  results 
were  not  wholly  to  the  credit  of  the  fitter. 
Thereafter  a  piece  of  white  cloth  was  sewed 
upon  each  suit,  indicating  the  man  for  whom 
it  was  intended.  The  finished  suit  was  of 
regulation  type;  a  close  fitting  jacket  with 


144       Under  Marching  Orders 

four  pockets,  a  row  of  brass  buttons  and  a 
standing  collar.  "When  tbe  cartridge  belt  was 
added,  tbe  effect  was  quite  tbe  same  as  if  a 
tailor  bad  done  tbe  work. 

On  tbe  19tb  of  June  a  startling  letter  was 
delivered  to  Mr.  Gamewell  by  a  swift  runner 
from  tbe  United  States  Legation.  Tbe  letter 
read  as  follows : 

"My  dear  Mr.  Gamewell: 

Tbe  Cbinese  Government  bas  notified  us 
tbat  tbe  admirals  at  Taku  bave  notified  tbe 
viceroy  tbat  tbey  will  take  possession  of  all 
tbe  Taku  forts  to-morrow.  Tbis  tbey  con- 
sider a  declaration  of  war  by  all  tbe  powers, 
and  bence  tender  tbe  ministers  tbeir  pass- 
ports, and  ask  us  to  leave  Peking  in  twenty- 
four  bours.  We  bave  replied  tbat  we  know 
notbing  of  tbis,  but  if  tbe  Cbinese  desire  to 
act  upon  sucb  information,  and  declare  war 
tbemselves,  tbat  of  course,  we  will  go  as  soon 
as  tbey  will  furnisb  us  tbe  necessary  trans- 
portation, and  send  reliable  escorts  to  take  us 
all  to  Tientsin.  Sincerely  yours, 

E.  H.  Conger." 

For  weeks  an  impressive  fleet  of  foreign 
warsbips  had  been  anchored  at  tbe  mouth  of 


Boxers  and  Barricades         145 

the  Pei  Ho,  or  North  Biver,  where  the  Taku 
forts  commanded  entrance  to  the  river. 
It  had  been  impossible  for  the  admirals  to 
decide  what  the  next  move  should  be,  since  it 
could  not  be  determined  whether  the  Chinese 
government  meant  war  or  not.  At  last,  when 
word  came  that  Peking  was  utterly  cut  off, 
that  Boxers  and  the  imperial  troops  were 
uniting,  that  an  unknown  Chinese  army  was 
contending  the  advance  of  Captain  McCalla 
and  the  relief  column,  and  that  the  Pei  Ho 
was  being  mined  with  torpedoes,  then  it  was 
that  the  Allied  Forces  swung  into  action. 
Early  in  the  morning  of  June  17th  they 
stormed  the  Taku  forts,  and  after  six  hours 
of  hard  fighting  the  last  gun  was  silenced, 
and  flags  of  Europe,  the  United  States,  and 
Japan,  waved  over  the  forts.  Long  weeks 
afterward  it  was  found  that  the  attack  had 
been  made  not  an  hour  too  soon.  The  deed 
had  been  done  before  the  letter  of  June  19th 
was  sent  to  the  foreign  ambassadors,  and 
thence  to  the  Methodist  compound.  Chinese 
government  officials  thought  best  to  keep  the 
real  truth  to  themselves,  as  well  as  the  fact 
that  Captain  McCalla  's  army  had  been  met 
by  Chinese  troops  and  repulsed.    The  assault 


146        Under  Marching  Orders 

upon  the  forts  had  something  the  same  effect 
upon  the  Chinese  people  as  the  firing  upon 
Fort  Sumter  had  upon  the  Northerners  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  At  any  rate 
it  gave  that  wily  empress  dowager  a  chance 
to  throw  off  her  mask,  and  enter  freely  upon 
her  desperate  attempt  to  drive  all  foreigners 
out  of  China. 

The  next  morning  after  the  order  to  leave 
the  city  had  been  received  in  the  Methodist 
mission,  the  women  gathered  about  their 
open  trunks  in  the  church.  Instructions  had 
come  from  the  legations  that  all  within  the 
compound  should  be  ready  to  leave  at  a 
moment's  notice,  and  that  they  could  take 
with  ^thern  only  what  could  be  borne  in  their 
hands.  Mrs.  Gamewell,  tired  almost  beyond 
the  power  of  thought,  questioned  with  the 
others:  "What  shall  I  take,  and  what  shall 
T  leave!  Which  of  these  our  possessions  is 
more  essential  than  the  others ?"  " Things" 
were  of  small  account  on  that  weary,  care- 
laden  day. 

The  real  concern  was  for  the  Chinese 
Christians,  all  of  whom  must  be  left  behind. 
The  treachery  of  the  Chinese  government  had 
already  been  proved,  and  there  was  little  or 


Boxers  and  Barricades         147 

no  hope  that  the  foreigners  would  escape  with 
their  lives.  In  all  likelihood  they  were  being 
beguiled  into  a  trap  of  death  somewhere  be- 
yond the  walls  of  Peking.  Safety  for  the 
Chinese  Christians  meant  that  they  must  be 
separated  at  once  from  the  missionaries. 

In  the  Girls'  High  School  the  pupils  came 
together  at  the  call  of  their  teachers.  They 
were  told  that  each  one  would  be  given  money 
sufficient  to  support  her  for  two  or  three 
months,  and  that  they  must  go  forth  in  search 
of  shelter  in  some  friendly  Chinese  home. 
With  set,  white  faces  girls  and  teachers  knelt 
and  prayed.  "If  life  be  given,  then  it  shall 
be  a  life  of  service;  if  death,  then  God's  will 
be  done."  This  was  the  prayer  with  which 
each  life  was  consecrated  to  God.  Then  they 
stood  and  sang  those  words  of  soldierly 
obedience:  "Where  he  leads  me  I  will  fol- 
low. ' '  Again,  in  anguish  of  heart  the  teacher 
prayed,  and  even  as  she  prayed  the  answer 
came.  "Before  they  call  I  will  answer,  and 
while  they  are  yet  speaking  I  will  hear." 
Some  one  lightly  touched  the  kneeling  figure, 
but  so  absorbed  was  she  that  the  summons 
was  thrice  repeated  before  she  gave  heed. 
Then  it  was  that  swift  joy  took  the  place  of 


148       Under  Marching  Orders 

sorrow.  There  was  to  be  no  separation  of 
pupils  and  teachers,  for  all  within  the  mis- 
sion were  to  take  what  belongings  they  could 
carry,  and  hasten  to  the  legations  about  a 
mile  away  where  all  foreigners  were  to  be  as- 
sembled. 

Out  in  the  streets  of  China's  capital,  Baron 
von  Ketteler,  the  German  ambassador,  had 
been  killed  by  an  officer  of  the  Chinese  im- 
perial army.  The  first  shot  had  been  fired 
upon  the  foreigner,  and  China  stood  in  battle 
array  against  the  nations  of  the  world.  The 
German  ambassador  had  actually  given  his 
life  in  sacrifice  for  the  entire  foreign  settle- 
ment, for  it  was  his  death  which  revealed  be- 
yond a  doubt  China's  dastardly  intention. 
The  foreigners  were  to  have  been  lured  out  of 
Peking  only  to  be  massacred  by  Boxers  before 
they  reached  Tientsin.  Minister  Conger  sent 
his  last  letter  to  the  Methodist  compound: 
"Come  at  once  within  the  legation  lines  and 
bring  your  Chinese  with  you."  Dr.  Mor- 
rison, the  correspondent  of  the  London 
Times,  a  true  man  and  valorous,  had  stood 
up  in  the  midst  of  the  legation  council  and 
boldly  declared:  "I  should  be  ashamed  to 
call  myself  a  white  man  if  I  could  not  make 


149 


150       Under  Marching  Orders 

a  place  of  refuge  for  these  Chinese  Chris- 
tians. ' ' 

At  eleven  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  the  long 
procession  passed  through  the  mission  gate 
into  Filial  Piety  Lane,  thence  across  the  great 
thoroughfare  which  led  southward  to  the 
Hata  gate,  and  turned  westward  into  Lega- 
tion Street.  First  in  the  ranks  marched  tlio 
twenty  marines,  led  by  Captain  Hall,  and 
followed  by  the  missionary  women  and  chil- 
dren. Behind  them  a  detachment  of  German 
soldiers  bore  upon  a  stretcher  the  wounded 
man  who  had  been  the  interpreter  for  Baron 
von  Ketteler,  and  who  had  almost  miracu- 
lously escaped  death  in  his  flight  to  the  Meth- 
odist compound.  Then  came  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty-six  school  girls  marching  in 
simple,  quiet  dignity  as  if  they  were  on  their 
way  to  a  religious  service  or  a  school  exercise. 
Hundreds  of  Chinese  women  and  little  chil- 
dren, followed  by  a  large  company  of  men 
and  boys,  were  next  in  order.  The  handful 
of  missionary  men,  armed  with  rifles  or 
revolvers,  closed  the  line  of  march. 

It  was  a  brave,  sad  caravan  proceeding  on 
its  way  from  danger  into  danger,  and  the 
longest,  hardest  test  of  endurance  was  yet  to 


Turning  into  Legation  Street  from  Hata  Men  Street 


Boxers  and  Barricades         151 

come.  A  steady  confidence,  born  of  the  habit 
of  living  in  the  presence  of  God,  dominated 
these  men  and  women,  foreign  and  Chinese 
alike.  An  American  marine  watched  with 
keen  admiration  the  conduct  of  the  Chinese 
Christians  and  remarked:  "The  missionary- 
society  that  appointed  those  ladies  to  take 
care  of  these  Chinese,  knew  what  they  were 
about  for  certain.' '  As  the  last  of  the  Chris- 
tian refugees  passed  within  the  barricades  on 
Legation  Street,  the  semi-siege  was  over  and 
the  real  Siege  of  Peking  speedily  began. 


BESIEGED  BY  FRENZIED  CHINESE 


153 


BESIEGED  BY  FEENZIED  CHINESE 

"One  equal  temper  of  heroic  hearts 
Made  weak  by  time  and  fate,  but  strong  in  will 
To  strive,  to  seek,  to  find,  and  not  to  yield." 

'f  ...  •   .'..  ■ 

Of  all  the  great  cities  of  the  world,  Peking 
in  the  old  days  was  the  most  inaccessible  both 
by  land  and  water.  Other  cities  renowned  in 
history — Carthage,  Eome,  Athens,  Bombay — 
have  owed  their  prestige  largely  to  their  easy 
approach  from  the  sea.  It  was  character- 
istic, however,  of  the  exclusive  Chinese  to 
locate  their  capital  away  from  the  coast  and 
the  rivers,  and  to  surround  it,  as  well  as  a 
portion  of  the  empire  itself,  with  a  great  wall. 
Within  these  city  walls  the  foreigners  were 
caught,  as  in  a  trap,  in  the  month  of  June, 
1900.  Release  must  come  by  means  of  the 
men  on  the  war  vessels  at  Taku,  who  would 
have  to  pass  blockaded  Tientsin  and  march 
the  eighty  miles  to  Peking.  The  railroad  was 
destroyed:  Boxers  and  imperial  troops  in 
combined  strength  would  oppose  their  ad- 
vance.  All  means  of  communication,  postal, 

155 


156       Under  Marching  Orders 

telephone,  and  telegraph,  were  cut  off,  and 
where  was  the  daring  messenger  who  would 
run  the  gauntlet  of  Boxer  fury  and  carry 
news  of  the  foreigners'  plight  to  the  armies? 
Such  was  the  forlorn  situation  that  glaring 
noonday  when  the  homeless  folk  from  the 
Methodist  compound  were  received  within 
the  legation  lines  of  defense.  Human  help 
was  remote  and  unlikely;  destruction  by  the 
Boxers  near  and  threatening.  God  alone  was 
the  real  bulwark  of  protection  from  the  first 
to  the  last  day  of  the  long  strife. 

East  of  the  British  Legation,  separated  by 
a  street  and  a  moat,  was  the  palace  of  a 
Chinese  nobleman,  named  Prince  Su.  His 
stately  residence  was  known  as  the  Su  Wang 
Fu,  briefly  called  the  Fu.  Persuaded  by  the 
tact  of  Dr.  Morrison  and  Prof.  James,  Prince 
Su  had  granted  permission  for  the  Chinese 
Christians  to  be  sheltered  within  his  courts. 
Two  thousand  Catholic  Chinese  had  already 
been  housed  there,  and  now  several  hundred 
Protestants  were  waiting  for  a  place  of 
refuge.  Later  in  the  day  the  prince  fled  into 
the  Imperial  City,  thus  making  room  in  his 
empty  house  for  this  new  multitude  of  de- 
pendent Chinese.    Fires  were  still  burning  in 


seer  Mouse      aiuum>  MfS$      block 

j       0OCTeHS  MJk,.l.  .;       .       J  $TUO£NTi 


BJLOCl 

IsTVt 

r^lfy  stows 

pt;v,'>     r£A<.»e«s  House 

£$^&&      iTABtes^ 


British  Legation,  Peking 


Gate  to  British  Legation,  Showing  Fortification  and 
Dry  Canal 


Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese     157 

the  ranges  within  the  buildings.  Stores  of 
coal  and  grain,  and  deep  wells,  were  prom- 
ises of  future  provision.  It  seemed  as  if  God 
himself  had  prepared  this  fold  for  his 
Chinese  flock. 

Meanwhile  the  American  missionaries 
halted  within  the  shade  of  the  United  States 
Legation,  where  Mrs.  Squiers,  wife  of  the 
First  Secretary,  served  an  informal  luncheon 
for  the  entire  company.  After  two  hours' 
parley,  it  was  decided  that  the  American 
Legation  was  too  close  to  the  wall  to  be  a 
safe  place  for  women  and  children,  and  that 
the  British  Legation  was  the  least  exposed 
area.  Consequently  the  weary  wanderers 
filed  into  the  courts  already  crowded  with  a 
motley  throng  of  people  and  their  belongings. 
There  were  Jesuit  priests,  French  Catholic 
sisters,  Legation  students,  merchants,  tour- 
ists, and  missionaries — as  diverse  a  gather- 
ing as  ever  before  in  history  inhabited  six 
acres  of  earth.  Boxes,  bundles,  trunks,  baby 
carriages,  and  mattresses  had  been  dropped 
anywhere  and  everywhere.  Carts  and  coolies 
deposited  odds  and  ends  of  furniture,  and 
raced  back  for  another  load  while  yet  there 
was  time.    Through  all  this  chaos  the  mis- 


158       Under  Marching  Orders 

sionaries  pressed  their  way  to  the  Legation 
Chapel  which  was  reserved  for  their  use.  On 
the  seats  and  in  the  corners  bundles  of  all 
shapes  and  sizes  were  hastily  thrown,  while 
aisles  and  vestibule  became  literally  choked 
with  mattresses  and  bedding. 

Within  the  legation  quadrangle  there  were 
now  assembled  nearly  four  thousand  people, 
representing  seventeen  different  nations. 
Nearly  one  thousand  were  foreigners,  four 
hundred  and  fifty  of  whom  were  the  soldiers 
who  constituted  the  entire  military  guard. 
All  but  one  of  the  eleven  legations  were  to  be 
garrisoned  and  held  until  their  resources 
failed,  when  a  last  united  stand  was  to  be 
made  at  the  British  Legation.  Each  national 
detachment  of  soldiers  guarded  its  own  lega- 
tion, except  the  Japanese  and  Italians.  The 
legation  of  the  latter  was  destroyed  early  in 
the  siege,  and  that  of  the  former  was  wholly 
within  the  firing  lines,  and  needed  no  further 
protection.  Therefore  these  two  bands  of 
soldiers  were  stationed  in  the  park  which  sur- 
rounded the  Su  Wang  Fu  to  shield  the 
Chinese  Christians  from  attack.  All  other 
foreigners  were  harbored  within  the  British 
Legation,  although  the  ministers  of  the  dif- 


Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese     159 

ferent  countries  abode  with  the  soldiers  at 
their  respective  headquarters. 

While  the  women  missionaries  tried  to 
bring  order  out  of  chaos  in  the  British 
Chapel,  a  number  of  the  men,  accompanied 
by  a  squad  of  Chinese,  went  back  to  the  Meth- 
odist compound  to  rescue  some  of  the  provi- 
sions stored  in  Asbury  Church.  It  was  a  sad 
experience,  this  return  to  the  deserted  com- 
pound. The  homes,  the  schools,  and  the 
church  were  still  standing,  but  at  any  moment 
they  might  be  reduced  to  a  heap  of  broken 
bricks.  A  foreboding  told  the  missionaries 
that  they  were  looking  for  the  last  time  upon 
these  buildings  which  their  toil  had  made 
possible,  and  which  they  loved  as  a  sculptor 
loves  the  figure  he  carves  out  of  the  rough 
marble.  But  upon  these  thoughts  there  was 
no  time  to  brood,  for  their  work  must  be  done 
with  utmost  speed,  if  they  would  return 
before  the  attack  began.  Food  supplies  in 
large  quantities  were  gathered  into  sheets  and 
quilts,  and  borne  by  the  Chinese  to  the  church 
within  the  legation  lines.  A  few  carts  were 
found  which  transported  bedding,  clothing, 
and  other  property.  Yet  when  all  was  done, 
possessions  worth  thousands  of  dollars  had 


160       Under  Marching  Orders 

to  be  left  behind  for  the  ruthless  hands  of  the 
looters,  who  were  even  then  at  work. 

Precisely  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
twenty-four  hours  after  the  command  to  leave 
Peking  had  been  received,  Chinese  imperial 
troops  opened  fire  upon  the  legations.  Mr. 
Gamewell  with  Mrs.  Jewell,  one  of  the 
teachers,  started  forth  from  the  Fu  just  as 
the  first  bullets  whizzed  through  the  street. 
Voices  from  across  the  way  cried,  "Go 
back !  Go  back ! ' '  After  waiting  a  few  min- 
utes, they  crouched  low  and  ran  across  the 
perilous  street  to  be  received  within  the  lega- 
tion gate.  Thereafter  all  women  were  for- 
bidden to  cross  this  dangerous  thoroughfare 
which  lay  between  them  and  their  Chinese 
Christians  in  Prince  Su's  palace. 

While  rifle  shots  were  hissing  through  the 
air,  the  evening  meal  was  being  served  in 
Legation  Chapel.  Men,  women,  and  children 
sat  on  benches  and  bundles,  on  the  altar 
steps,  and  on  the  floor,  while  odd  bits  of  food 
were  distributed  to  them.  Porcelain-lined 
plates  had  been  secured  that  afternoon  from 
the  stores  on  Legation  Street,  and  stood  the 
test  of  constant  use  through  the  many  days  to 
come.     After  the  meal  was  over,  the  dishes 


Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese     161 

were  handed  through  a  window  to  Chinese 
servants  outside,  who  washed  and  returned 
them,  after  which  they  were  stacked  on  the 
altar  close  by  the  tall  candlesticks,  and  in 
front  of  a  beautiful  painting.  The  pulpit, 
too,  soon  became  a  cupboard  for  cups  and 
saucers,  knives  and  forks  and  spoons. 

The  darkness  of  the  first  night  settled 
gradually  upon  the  tired  camp,  and  strange 
preparations  for  sleeping  were  everywhere 
in  order.  Mattresses  were  laid  on  the  chapel 
floor,  and  families  and  other  groups  of  people 
divided  the  floor  space  into  as  small  fractions 
as  possible.  Others  utilized  the  church 
benches,  placing  them  face  to  face,  and 
spreading  thereon  such  fragments  of  bedding 
as  they  chanced  to  possess.  Many  of  the 
people  had  no  pillows,  sheets,  mattresses,  or 
blankets,  but  in  siege  days  he  who  has  two 
of  anything,  promptly  shares  with  him  who 
has  none.  Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith,  the  historian 
of  the  siege,  said  that  the  sleeping  arrange- 
ments in  the  chapel  resembled  the  "ground 
plan  of  a  box  of  sardines. ' '  Yet  there  was  not 
room  for  all  the  seventy.  Several  of  the  men 
sought  the  uncertain  shelter  of  pavilions, 
verandas,  and  benches  under  trees — any  place 


162       Under  Marching  Orders 

where  a  faint  measure  of  safety  might  be 
found.  A  message  was  brought  to  the  chapel 
from  Lady  MacDonald,  wife  of  the  British 
ambassador,  to  the  effect  that  four  or  five 
women  could  find  refuge  in  a  room  in  the  stu- 
dents '  quarter.  Mrs.  Gamewell  and  others 
responded  at  once  to  this  summons.  Through 
a  labyrinth  of  Peking  carts  and  boxes,  they 
found  their  way  to  the  long,  two-story  build- 
ing which  Mrs.  Game  well  said  seemed  to  be 
an  "eruption  of  people  and  things."  The 
first  floor  was  solidly  packed  with  people, 
but  to  their  surprise  they  found  unoccupied 
rooms  on  the  floor  above,  in  which  they  spread 
their  bedding  and  lay  down  without  removing 
their  clothes.  The  veranda  outside  was 
congested  with  people  who  preferred  the 
protection  of  the  front  wall  to  the  room  in- 
doors. At  the  rear  of  the  building  a  volley 
of  rifle-shot  poured  over  the  north  wall  of  the 
legation.  Mrs.  Gamewell  lay  quietly  on  the 
floor  of  the  unfamiliar  room,  conscious  of 
the  wakefulness  of  the  people  all  about  her, 
her  mind  asking  questions  to  which  the  dark- 
ness gave  no  answer:  "What  would  the  night 
bring  forth !  Was  death  really  near  1  Would 
the  relief  column  come  with  the  morning?    If 


Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese     163 

not,  how  near  and  what  the  end!"  Even  yet 
the  thoughts  of  the  people  turned  wistfully 
to  Captain  McCalla  and  his  troops,  not  know- 
ing, as  did  the  Chinese,  that  they  had  been 
defeated  and  driven  back  to  Tientsin. 

As  the  night  deepened,  the  rifle-fire  intensi- 
fied. A  fierce  attack  was  in  progress  at  the 
north,  and  the  Chinese  soldiers  had  the  range 
of  the  rear  windows  of  the  building.  Mrs. 
Gamewell  and  her  companions  were  almost 
on  the  firing  line  of  battle.  By  and  by  she 
heard  the  guard  come  in,  and  realized  that 
Mr.  Gamewell  had  been  stationed  at  a  window 
at  the  end  of  the  hall.  Presently  there  was  a 
hurrying  to  and  fro.  Armed  men  hastened 
through  the  room,  stepping  over  the  women 
as  they  lay  on  the  floor  on  the  direct  route  of 
the  soldiers  from  post  to  post. 

Finally,  out  of  the  horror  of  the  night 
another  day  dawned,  bringing  its  blasting 
heat  and  its  pressing  work.  In  the  morning 
an  invitation  came  to  the  little  group  of 
women  to  spend  the  next  night  in  Lady  Mac- 
Donald  's  ballroom.  Other  women  had  al- 
ready gathered  there,  but  on  its  broad  floor 
there  was  sleeping  space  for  all.  There  Mrs. 
Gamewell  spent  the  remaining  nights  of  the 


164       Under  Marching  Orders 

siege.  Some  one  gave  her  a  piece  of  a  mat- 
tress, while  a  laundry  bag,  enclosing  shoes 
and  sundry  personal  possessions,  served  as 
a  pillow. 

It  was  on  the  second  day  of  the  siege  that 
Sir  Claude  MacDonald  rallied  about  him  the 
missionaries  who  had  already  proved  their 
ingenuity  and  perseverance  in  the  work  ac- 
complished in  the  Methodist  compound.  Mr. 
Gamewell  was  immediately  appointed  Chief 
of  the  Fortification  Staff,  and  was  given 
entire  charge  of  the  work  of  fortifying  the 
British  Legation.  It  was  a  delicate  matter 
for  a  civilian  to  have  authority  beyond  the 
military  officers,  but  later  events  showed  that 
in  nothing  did  Sir  Claude  MacDonald  mani- 
fest his  wisdom  so  clearly  as  in  giving  Mr. 
Gamewell  full  liberty  to  build  the  fortifica- 
tions according  to  his  own  ideas  and  his 
alone.  Other  committees  were  created  at  the 
same  time.  There  were  a  General  Committee 
of  Public  Comfort;  a  committee  on  San- 
itation, made  up  of  missionary  physicians 
and  others;  a  Food  Supply  committee;  a 
committee  to  enlist  the  labor  of  the  Chinese, 
as  well  as  committees  to  watch  against  fires, 
and  to  provide  fuel  for  fires  of  another  sort. 


Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese     165 

Promptly  after  its  appointment,  the  Food 
Supply  Committee  started  on  a  foraging  tour 
in  Legation  Street.  In  this  street  were  lo- 
cated a  number  of  native  and  foreign  stores, 
whose  proprietors  had  either  fled  outside  the 
area  occupied  by  the  foreigners,  or  had 
sought  the  protection  of  the  British  Legation. 
An  incredible  amount  of  foodstuffs  had  been 
left  in  these  shops.  If  the  provisions  were 
not  given  voluntarily  by  the  owners,  a  care- 
ful record  was  kept  by  the  committee  of  all 
goods  appropriated,  in  order  that  future  pay- 
ment might  be  made.  In  one  store  several 
tons  of  rice  were  discovered,  most  of  it  being 
the  musty,  yellow  variety  which  is  hard  eat- 
ing for  the  foreigner.  A  native  shop  close 
by  the  canal  was  stacked  high  with  cylindrical 
baskets  containing  fresh,  new  wheat  just 
brought  in  from  Hu-nan.  There  were  found 
to  be  at  least  eight  thousand  bushels  of  this 
wheat.  Eleven  stone  mills  were  a  part  of  the 
outfit  of  the  grain-shop.  In  the  days  to  come, 
early  and  late,  in  sunshine  and  rain,  and 
under  the  incessant  fire  of  rifles,  these  mills 
were  made  to  grind  meal  and  flour  for  for- 
eigners and  Chinese.  In  other  shops  was  an 
abundance  of  white  and  yellow  Indian  corn 


166       Under  Marching  Orders 

and  pulse,  as  well  as  bags  of  coffee,  sugar, 
beans,  and  an  assortment  of  canned  goods. 
There  were  many  horses  and  mules  in  and 
about  the  legations,  and  the  time  came  when 
they  also  were  a  welcome  addition  to  the 
daily  diet.  Within  the  British  compound 
were  eight  wells,  which  furnished  an  inex- 
haustible supply  of  clear,  cold  water — a 
wonderful  blessing  in  the  city  of  Peking. 

"When  more  than  three  thousand  people 
gathered  at  noon  on  the  20th  of  June,  within 
the  legation  lines,  there  was  not  food  enough 
at  hand  for  one  meal.  Within  a  day,  sufficient 
provision  had  been  found  to  sustain  life  for 
two  months.  To  some,  it  seemed  a  miracle  as 
great  as  any  recorded  in  the  Book  itself. 
This  indication  of  God's  loving  care  gave 
heart  to  the  hard-pressed  people  during 
every  day  of  the  long  struggle. 

From  the  moment  when  Mr.  Gamewell  was 
given  charge  of  the  fortifications  until  the  end 
of  the  siege,  he  worked  day  and  night  to 
make  the  British  Legation  as  nearly  like  an 
impregnable  fortress  as  was  possible  under 
the  conditions.  Often  four  hours  out  of  the 
twenty-four  were  his  allowance  for  sleep. 
By  means  of  a  much-used  bicycle  he  seemed 


Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese     167 

to  be  everywhere  at  once,  superintending  the 
building  of  barricades,  seeking  reinforce- 
ments of  Chinese  laborers,  and  always  watch- 
ing for  weak  points  in  the  defenses  which 
were  immediately  to  be  strengthened.  One 
day  when  Mrs.  Gamewell  was  inquiring  for 
her  husband,  some  one  replied : ' '  If  you  stand 
right  where  you  are  for  five  minutes,  he  will 
be  likely  to  go  past."  And  the  prediction 
proved  true.  Often  after  the  furious  attacks 
which  came  in  the  midnight  hours,  he  would 
go  to  the  threshold  of  the  ballroom  where  the 
group  of  women  were  trying  in  vain  to  sleep, 
and  would  give  them  an  account  of  what  had 
happened,  telling  them  that  it  was  never  as 
bad  as  it  had  seemed  to  be  from  the  sounds. 
His  reassuring  words  comforted  them  so  that 
they  could  relax  for  a  few  hours '  sleep  before 
the  morning  sun  summoned  to  the  tasks  of  a 
new  day. 

When  the  refugees  entered  the  legations, 
there  were  no  fortifications  except  a  barri- 
cade at  each  end  of  Legation  Street,  and  the 
natural  protection  afforded  by  the  walls. 
One  of  Mr.  Gamewell 's  first  moves  was  to 
fortify  the  great  gate.  The  stable  gate  was 
also  most  important.    A  wall  eight  feet  thick 


168       Under  Marching  Orders 

was  built  inside  this  heavy,  double  gate.  The 
enemy  set  fire  to  the  posts  of  the  gate,  and 
posts  and  gate  were  totally  consumed.  If 
this  gate  had  not  been  strengthened  Chinese 
rifles  would  have  had  clean  sweep  of  the 
legation  court,  and  Chinese  troops  could  have 
rushed  inside  the  lines. 

In  the  region  of  the  Mongol  Market,  in  the 
southwestern  corner  of  the  legation,  solid 
barricades  five  feet  in  thickness  were  con- 
structed. In  exactly  five  hours  after  these 
defenses  were  finished,  the  Chinese  had  loop- 
holed  every  house  opposite,  thus  showing  how 
necessary  it  was  to  have  this  remote  corner 
protected. 

The  director  of  the  fortifications  gave  end- 
less time  and  thought  to  the  eastern  side  of 
the  compound,  which  was  the  strategic  sec- 
tion. The  Su  Wang  Fu  was  separated  only 
by  the  narrow  canal  road.  If  the  Fu  should 
have  to  be  abandoned,  as  had  already  seemed 
likely,  the  enemy  could  mount  their  guns  on 
the  mounds  of  the  flower  garden,  only  fifty 
yards  away  from  the  residence  of  Sir  Claude 
MaeDonald.  To  prepare  for  such  an  emer- 
gency, thick,  high  walls  were  built  of  earth 
and  braced  by  heavy  timbers.    Countermines 


Dr.  Gamewell  and  Fortification   Staf 


Sand-bag  Fortification 


Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese     169 

were  dug  in  order  to  stop  mines  projected 
by  the  enemy.  This  elaborate  barricading 
was  a  herculean  task,  and  literally  could  not 
have  been  accomplished  without  the  patient, 
uncomplaining  labor  of  the  Chinese  Chris- 
tians, whose  presence  was  at  first  deemed  by 
some  to  be  a  menace  and  a  nuisance. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Gamewell  began  to  plan  the 
fortifications,  he  foresaw  the  need  of  sand- 
bags, an  endless  succession  of  them,  to  repair 
breaches,  to  surround  the  sentinel  at  his  post 
on  the  outer  wall,  to  barricade  the  hospital 
and  other  buildings,  and  to  shield  the  men  as 
they  worked  on  the  defenses.  The  chapel 
became  the  headquarters  of  the  bag-making 
industry  and  the  women  the  incessant  labor- 
ers. There  was  never  a  day  when  some  one 
was  not  making  bags.  A  number  of  sewing- 
machines  appeared  as  suddenly  as  if  a  magic 
wand  had  called  them  into  being,  and  spools 
of  thread  multiplied  in  the  same  enchanted 
fashion.  Deserted  shops  and  Chinese  houses 
were  ransacked,  revealing  untold  lengths  of 
silks,  satins,  and  brocades,  priceless  stuffs, 
which  were  speedily  turned  into  bags.  Lady 
MacDonald  sent  exquisite  portieres,  while 
soldiers    contributed    their    army    blankets. 


170       Under  Marching  Orders 

Fabrics  worth  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars 
were  cut  and  stitched  into  shape,  to  be  packed 
with  earth  taken  from  holes  dug  in  the  yard. 

In  the  chapel,  the  whirr  of  sewing-machines 
added  to  the  general  confusion.  In  this  one 
room,  forty-three  feet  long  by  twenty-five 
feet  wide,  nine  meals  were  served  daily, 
breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper  being  provided 
in  relays.  Flies,  in  sticky,  black  swarms  cov- 
ered ceiling,  walls,  people,  and  food.  In  this 
room  babies  and  children  slept  and  played. 
Here  it  was  that  the  choking  heat  was  in- 
creased by  piles  of  sand-bags  on  the  window- 
ledges,  which  kept  out  light  and  air  as  well  as 
shot  and  shell.  In  this  little  English  chapel, 
men  and  women,  with  worn,  haggard  faces 
sang  and  prayed  together  each  day.  And 
here  the  women,  Mrs.  Gamewell  in  the  midst, 
worked  every  minute  of  the  daylight.  The 
food  must  be  cooked  and  served,  the  chapel 
floor  must  be  mopped,  bedding  for  the  hos- 
pital must  be  supplied,  and  always  and  ever 
there  was  a  cry  for  "bags,  bags,  bags!" 

So  expert  did  the  bag-makers  become,  that 
they  could  produce  an  average  of  one  bag  in 
four  minutes,  several  hundred  in  two  hours, 
and  two  thousand  in  a  day.    Between  forty 


Besieged  by  Frenzied  Chinese     171 

and  fifty  thousand  were  made  in  all.  If  the 
demand  for  bags  was  urgent,  the  women 
would  leave  their  sewing  and  resort  to  the 
ditches  where  they  held  the  bags  and  men 
shoveled  in  earth.  One  day  Mrs.  Conger  was 
seen  standing  in  a  deep,  dusty  hole,  holding 
bags  open  while  a  long-robed  priest  of  the 
Greek  Church  filled  them;  a  little  Chinese 
boy  tied  the  strings,  and  the  English  chaplain 
bore  away  the  finished  products.  Some- 
times Chinese  and  foreign  children  trotted 
jinrikishas  full  of  bags  to  the  gate  or  wall 
where  eager  men  received  them.  A  large 
part  of  the  history  of  the  siege  is  the  story 
of  these  bags  of  many  colors,  made  and  filled 
by  many  hands,  and  saving  from  cannon- 
shot  and  bullets,  many  hundreds  of  people. 

In  the  stifling  chapel,  through  the  courts 
where  bullets  dropped  unceasingly,  in  the 
ballroom  during  nights  of  terror,  Mrs. 
Gamewell  lived  her  cheery,  buoyant  life  as  of 
old.  Her  ready  smile  and  quick  appreciation 
gave  courage  to  the  dispirited  soldiers.  The 
unfailing  twinkle  shone  in  her  eyes  when  the 
funny  things  happened,  and  funny  things 
there  were  in  the  very  heart  of  the  sad.  And 
the  look  of  triumphant  vision  crowned  it  all 


172        Under  Marching  Orders 

as  if  she  "endured  as  seeing  him  who  is  in- 
visible. ' '  For  all  this  fiery  trial  she  had  been 
preparing  in  the  old  war  days  in  Davenport, 
in  the  pioneer  years  in  the  Peking  compound, 
in  the  disturbed  months  at  Chung-ch'ing,  and 
throughout  her  varied,  eventful  life.  In  it 
all  she  had  been  tried  and  had  not  been  found 
wanting.  But  the  great  struggle  was  telling 
with  fatal  certainty  upon  mind  and  body. 
That  glad  energy  which  had  always  been 
given  without  stint  to  those  who  had  need  was 
spending  itself  to  the  utmost,  those  summer 
days  in  the  siege  of  Peking. 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  ALLIES 


173 


XI 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  ALLIES 

"Turn  you  to  the  stronghold,  ye  prisoners  of  hope." 

From  the  palace  courts  within  the  Forbid- 
den City,  tall  rockets  sent  lines  of  fire  into 
the  air  and  dropped  in  tiny  balls  of  brightly 
colored  flame.  The  empress  dowager  was 
flinging  aloft  her  daily  signal  to  imperial 
troops  and  " loyal  Boxers"  for  a  fresh, 
furious  attack  upon  the  foreigners.  A  deluge 
of  shot  and  shell  regularly  obeyed  the  royal 
command.  By  fire,  shot,  explosion,  or  star- 
vation she  would  annihilate  the  official  repre- 
sentatives of  the  great  nations  of  the  world 
and  their  people  who  had  rallied  around  them 
for  defense.  What  consternation  would 
ensue  if  the  President  of  the  United  States 
should  order  the  national  army  to  shoot 
bullets  and  cannon-balls  into  the  legations 
where  the  foreign  ambassadors  live  in  Wash- 
ington! Yet  this  was  exactly  the  treatment 
Americans,  Europeans,  and  Japanese  were 
receiving  in  China  at  the  hands  of  the  gov- 
ernment pledged  by  treaty  to  protect  them. 

175 


176       Under  Marching  Orders 

For  national  treachery,  the  act  was  beyond 
parallel. 

On  the  second  and  third  days  of  the  siege, 
Chinese  troops  made  the  most  fiendish  at- 
tempts to  destroy  the  British  Legation  by 
fire.  They  ponred  kerosene  upon  their  own 
buildings  which  were  close  to  the  legation 
walls,  and  burned  them  in  the  mad  hope  that 
the  quick,  fierce  flames  would  consume  the 
foreigners.  At  the  same  time  they  kept  up 
a  perpetual  fusillade  of  rifle-shots,  thinking 
thus  to  damage  the  defenses. 

Eeckless  beyond  belief,  they  set  fire  to  the 
Hanlin  Yuan,  their  library  of  rare  old  books 
and  ancient  records.  So  sacred  had  this  na- 
tional museum  been  considered  that  none  but 
Chinese  had  ever  passed  beyond  its  doors. 
But  now,  in  the  frantic  desire  to  expel  the 
foreigner,  they  would  willingly  sacrifice  the 
empire's  treasures.  The  library  was  located 
at  the  north  of  the  British  Legation,  not  far 
from  the  dwelling  of  Sir  Claude  MacDonald. 
A  gale  of  wind  was  blowing  from  the  north 
and  would  vastly  aid  their  efforts  to  bear  the 
flames  to  the  ambassador's  house.  Over  in  the 
legation  courts,  men  of  all  ages  and  races 
carried  water-buckets,  manipulated  the  small 


Ruins  of  the  Hanlix  Library 


Chinese  Watching  a  Fire  in  the  British  Legation 


The  Coming  of  the  Allies      177 

fire-engines,  and  cut  down  trees  to  prevent 
their  dry  branches  from  spreading  the  fire. 
It  was  a  tragic  scene ;  men  fighting  for  their 
lives  and  for  the  lives  of  women  and  children 
against  fire  and  wind  and  hosts  of  frenzied 
Chinese.  No  power  on  earth  could  possibly 
save  them,  and  it  was  no  human  power  which 
made  the  wind  suddenly  shift  to  the  north- 
west and  quickly  die  away  just  when  the 
danger  was  keenest,  carrying  smoke  and  flame 
away  from  the  imperiled  legation.  For  the 
remainder  of  the  day  and  throughout  the 
night,  soldiers  and  civilians  worked  inces- 
santly, checking  every  vestige  of  fire,  and  re- 
moving all  inflammable  material.  In  the 
early  morning  they  came  in,  spent,  dirty, 
hungry,  but  triumphant. 

A  week  or  more  after  these  first  savage 
onslaughts  of  the  Chinese,  a  handful  of  Amer- 
ican soldiers  made  the  most  remarkable 
charge  of  the  whole  siege,  which  for  sheer 
daring  was  almost  unparalleled  in  military 
history.  The  United  States  Legation  lay  in 
the  shadow  of  the  city  wall  which  separated 
the  Tartar  and  Chinese  cities.  From  the 
Ch'ien  gate  Chinese  soldiers  crept  warily 
along  the  top  of  the  wall  and  sent  an  ava- 


178       Under  Marching  Orders 

lanche  of  shot  into  the  legation  below.  It  was 
evident  that  the  wall  must  be  captured  and 
held,  else  Chinese  sharpshooters  would  soon 
have  the  range  of  the  entire  legation  area. 
The  next  day,  under  constant  fire  from  the 
enemy,  Captain  Myers  led  his  band  of  hardy 
American  soldiers  up  the  ramp  (inclined 
ascent)  to  the  summit  of  the  wall,  where  by 
painful  degrees  they  built  two  barricades 
somewhat  resembling  a  rough  fort.  Day  by 
day  these  marines  guarded  their  post.  Some 
of  them  had  already  learned  the  meaning  of 
war  in  Cuba  and  the  Philippines.  There, 
after  the  battle  was  over  they  could  return  to 
camp  for  a  snatch  of  rest,  but  on  the  Peking 
wall  was  no  respite  in  sun  or  rain,  darkness 
or  light.  Captain  Myers  stayed  on  the  wall 
seven  days  in  continuous  succession. 

In  the  hours  of  the  night  the  Chinese  sol- 
diers wrought  a  twisting  line  of  barricade 
from  the  gate  toward  the  American  position, 
ending  with  a  tower  only  a  few  feet  distant, 
from  which  they  threw  bricks  and  stones  at 
Captain  Myers  and  the  marines.  A  return 
charge  must  be  made  at  once  if  the  wall 
would  be  held,  and  the  Chinese  repulsed. 
Captain  Myers  rallied  his  men  with  a  few 


The  Coming  of  the  Allies      179 

direct  words  of  challenge,  telling  them  that 
the  obstacles  were  great  but  that  the  lives 
of  women  and  children  depended  npon  their 
valor.  He  then  leaped  boldly  over  the  bar- 
ricades followed  by  the  Americans  aided  by 
a  group  of  British  and  Eussians.  In  the 
dark,  desperate  struggle  about  seventy-five 
foreign  soldiers  fought  unknown  thousands 
of  Chinese  and  drove  them  back  in  confusion. 
Their  barricades  were  captured,  and  were 
held  for  seven  heroic  weeks,  although  Captain 
Myers  was  so  seriously  wounded  in  that 
night's  sortie  that  he  could  not  resume  his 
post  on  the  wall  throughout  the  siege.  He 
and  his  dauntless  marines  were  likened  to  the 
band  of  three  hundred  Spartans  who  fought 
against  the  entire  Persian  host  at  Thermo- 
pylae more  than  two  thousand  years  before. 

Not  only  in  the  hearts  of  American  marines 
must  bravery  dominate,  but  all  alike  must 
learn  a  new  code  of  courage  for  these  days 
of  sharp  peril.  In  the  legation  courts  rifle- 
shots fell  like  hail  upon  the  trees,  severing 
leaves  and  branches  and  scattering  them  upon 
the  ground  as  if  a  hurricane  had  passed  that 
way.  Children  filled  hats  with  bullets  which 
they  picked  up  under  the  trees.    Forty  can- 


180        Under  Marching  Orders 

non-balls  of  different  size  were  stacked  in 
front  of  Sir  Claude  MacDonald's  dwelling. 
The  firing  of  hundreds  of  shells  and  rifle- 
shots at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
a  minute  proved  that  the  Chinese  possessed 
modern  equipment  and  plenty  of  it.  Minister 
Conger  said  that  nothing  in  the  Civil  War 
could  compare  with  the  fury  of  these  onsets. 
Chinese  sharpshooters  hid  like  birds  in  the 
branches  of  trees  outside  the  legation  walls, 
and  chose  their  deadly  aim,  their  smokeless 
rifles  giving  little  clue  to  their  whereabouts. 
One  day  Mrs.  Gamewell  was  hastening  across 
the  court,  when  a  bullet  whizzed  so  close  that 
she  thought  it  must  have  passed  through  her 
dress.  She  turned  and  saw  a  soldier  fall. 
He  had  received  the  shot  which  she  had  es- 
caped only  by  a  fraction  of  a  second.  One 
hot  evening  she  was  going  with  another 
woman  to  the  well,  and  as  they  stepped  into 
a  patch  of  light  cast  by  a  lantern,  a  bullet 
bored  into  the  ground  at  their  heels.  Every 
day  told  its  tale  of  startling,  hairbreadth 
escapes.  Bullets  passed  through  the  open 
fingers  of  a  hand,  through  a  fan  held  in  the 
hand,  through  the  hair  of  a  man  who  leaned 
incautiously  out  of  a  window,  through  the 


House  in  British  Legation,  Peking,  Showing  Bombardment 
by  Chinese 


International  Gun,   "Betsey' 


The  Coming  of  the  Allies      181 

cuff  of  a  sleeve,  and  one  smashed  a  bottle 
which  Dr.  Ament  carried,  leaving  him  un- 
scathed. 

To  return  what  Dr.  Smith  called  these  "  in- 
cessant attentions, ' '  large  guns  were  sorely 
needed.  There  was  only  one  cannon  within 
the  legation  lines,  an  Italian  one-pounder, 
which  was  frequently  moved  from  one  post 
to  another,  to  give  the  impression  of  five  or 
six  guns.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  a 
Chinese  carpenter,  foraging  for  tools  in  a 
blacksmith  shop,  unearthed  a  battered 
Chinese  cannon,  which  was  borne  in  triumph 
to  the  British  Legation.  The  Italians  hunted 
up  an  old  gun-carriage,  the  Russians  con- 
tributed the  shells,  which  belonged  to  their 
machine  gun  left  at  Tientsin,  and  Mitchell, 
the  fearless  American  gunner,  applied  a 
Japanese  fuse  to  Chinese  powder,  and  the 
first  shot  was  fired !  No  wonder  the  gun  was 
christened  the  "  International, ' '  though  the 
soldiers  found  this  name  too  bulky  for  prac- 
tical use,  and  called  it  " Betsey.' '  It  did  val- 
iant work  for  such  a  rusty,  ancient  weapon, 
on  one  occasion  sending  a  shell  through  three 
walls  into  the  Imperial  City. 

Hardest  of  all  the  trials  of  these  desolating 


182        Under  Marching  Orders 

days,  was  the  sight  of  wounded  soldiers  as 
they  were  borne  from  the  outer  barricades  to 
the  hospital.  Within  three  weeks,  fifty  of  the 
four  hundred  and  fifty  marines  had  been 
killed,  and  sixty  injured;  the  gritty  little 
Japanese  having  lost  the  largest  number  of 
men,  as  well  as  having  won  the  most  con- 
stant praise.  With  the  diminishing  garrison, 
the  murderous  efforts  of  untold  thousands  of 
Chinese,  the  total  silence  of  the  outside  world, 
there  was  large  need  of  faith  in  God.  Each 
morning  in  the  Legation  Chapel  men  and 
women  prayed  together  for  strength  to  out- 
last the  day.  There  were  countless  distrac- 
tions, children  crying,  sewing-machines  buzz- 
ing, people  coming  and  going  incessantly, 
and  yet  withal  a  reverent  worship  which  was 
a  comfort  and  support.  Bibles  opened  almost 
of  their  own  accord  to  the  Psalms  which 
seemed  exactly  to  describe  the  daily  distress 
and  peril,  and  the  utter  dependence  upon 
God  for  deliverance.  ("If  it  had  not  been 
Jehovah  who  was  on  our  side,  when  men  rose 
up  against  us;  then  they  had  swallowed  us 
up  alive,  when  their  wrath  was  kindled 
against  us."  "The  angel  of  Jehovah  en- 
campeth  round  about  them  that  fear  him, 


The  Coming  of  the  Allies      183 

and  delivereth  them."  j  The  two  hymns  most 
frequently  sung  at  these  morning  services 
were,  "The  Son  of  God  goes  forth  to  war," 
and  "Peace,  perfect  peace." 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  July  17  Minister 
Conger  came  to  the  door  of  the  chapel,  hold- 
ing in  his  hand  a  slip  of  paper.  Intense  in- 
terest answered  his  appearance.  Could  it  be 
that  a  message  from  the  relief  column  had 
been  received  at  last?  Eager  people  rallied 
about  him  to  hear  the  coveted  news.  It  was 
a  cablegram  from  the  Chinese  minister  at 
Washington  and  read  thus:  "Conger,  send 
tidings,  bearer."  Hardly  did  it  seem  possible 
that  the  communication  could  be  genuine,  so 
mysterious  had  been  its  coming.  Major 
Conger  wrote  the  following  reply  in  cypher, 
to  be  forwarded  to  the  government  in  Wash- 
ington: "Surrounded  and  fired  upon  by 
Chinese  troops  for  a  month.  If  not  relieved 
soon,  massacre  will  follow."  Thus  it  was 
that  the  first  word  from  the  besieged  people 
in  Peking  reached  the  waiting  world  and  was 
scarcely  credited,  so  bewildering  was  its 
meaning.  The  Chinese  ambassador  in  Wash- 
ington had  steadily  declared  that  Boxers 
alone  were  responsible  for  the  excitement, 


184       Under  Marching  Orders 

and  that  the  legations  were  safe.  The  State 
Department  of  the  government  demanded 
proof  of  his  statement,  and  the  cablegrams 
received  and  sent  by  Minister  Conger  were 
the  result.  The  dispatch  which  said  Chinese 
troops  were  attacking  the  legations  was  a 
puzzle  they  could  not  solve. 

On  the  next  day,  a  Chinese  Christian  who 
had  been  sent  by  the  Japanese  from  Peking 
to  Tientsin,  June  30,  stumbled  into  the  lega- 
tion lines,  worn  from  hardship  and  danger, 
but  triumphantly  bearing  a  letter  from  the 
Japanese  consul  at  Tientsin  to  the  Japanese 
minister  in  Peking.  Excitement  ran  high  as 
the  people  gathered  about  the  bulletin-board 
in  the  pavilion  of  the  bell-tower,  and  read  this 
thrilling  message  from  those  who  were  plan- 
ning their  relief:  "A  mixed  division  consist- 
ing of  2,400  Japanese,  4,000  Eussians,  1,200 
British,  1,500  Americans,  1,500  French,  and 
300  Germans  leaves  Tientsin  on  or  about  the 
20th  of  July,  for  the  relief  of  Peking. ' '  No- 
body knew  how  many  days  would  yet  have  to 
be  lived  through  before  the  troops  could 
fight  their  way  to  Peking,  but  they  were  com- 
ing, coming,  and  that  assurance  was  enough 
to  give  new  zest  to  life. 


THE    WESTERN    UNION    TELEGRAPH    COMPANY. 


I  CABLE  MESSA 


INCORPORATED 

■Mil  on  the  Me«aur«  tlaoks  pro.ldwl  i.y  th 
THQ3.  T.  ECKERT.  PresiAontjind,  General  toahager. 


ir...!].,'     y  ihli  Cooipany  f 


TWO  AMERICAN  CABLES  FROM  NEW  YORK  TO  CREAT  BRITAIN. 
CONNECTS  »t*o  w,th    FIVE    ANCLO-AMERICAN  *«D  ONE  DIRECT  U.  S.  ATLANTIC  CABLES. 

DIRECT  CABLE  COMMUNICATION  WITH  CERMANY  AND  FRANC*. 

CABLE  CONNECTION  *ith  CUBA.  WEST  INDIES,  MEXICO  «no  CENTRAL  «"■>  SOUTH  AMERICA. 

MESSACES  SENT  TO,  AND  RECEIVED  FROM ,  ALL  PARTS  OF  THE  WORLD. 

opFICBU    IN    AISERIOAl 

All  Offices  (21,000)  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  and  its  Connections. 


LlMl 

LIVERPOOL:    No.  8  Rumford  Street. 
CLASCOW:    No.  29  Cordon  St.  and  No. 
BRISTOL:   Backhall  Chamber*. 


RECEIVED  at 


fiUA, 


HU/>K? 


it. 


/rWt«W 

. , liuZfeLu 

_^ ^-  /» ^5 <U€— 

Last  Message  from  Dr.  Gamewell  before  the  Siege 


-4 


TRANS-ATLANTlCvjr^^^ 


European  offices: 
i  mxobn  n-'L..  ipDi  ««r»  ,  ftti  rt*r*t  in. 


1 ;:-':: 


'"^Ss^*''  _ A.tr>al"M 

"VIA  COMMERCIAL  CABLES,"  -. il 


'lltf  /allowing   Cablegram   received^ 
pubjert  to  the  terms  and  eon  il  it  Ion*  p 


the  back  hereof,  -which   are  ratified  and  fireed   to 


WKB»     OHCTOO   IX 


pejcim3   believed    all   veubers   missioi    8afe   well   davis   oameteu 
First  News  of  the  Relief 


The  Coming  of  the  Allies      185 

It  was  more  than  a  week  before  a  second 
commnnication  from  Tientsin  was  posted  on 
the  bulletin.  On  the  4th  of  July  a  Chinese 
boy,  disguised  as  a  beggar,  and  carrying  a 
bowl  of  porridge  in  which  was  hidden  a  letter 
wrapped  in  oil  paper,  had  slipped  stealthily 
through  the  Boxer  lines  and  started  forth  on 
his  hazardous  journey  to  Tientsin.  He  had 
now  returned,  bringing  a  letter  from  the 
British  consul  at  Tientsin  to  Sir  Claude  Mac- 
Donald.  ' '  Tientsin,  July  22 :  There  are  24,000 
troops  landed,  and  19,000  here.  There  are 
plenty  of  troops  on  the  way  if  you  can  keep 
yourself  in  food."  The  vagueness  of  this 
message  was  disheartening  to  those  who  had 
longed  so  desperately  for  definite  tidings,  but 
at  last  there  was  proof  that  the  outside  world 
had  not  totally  forgotten,  and  that  the  armies 
of  the  nations  were  sometime  coming  to  their 
relief.  This  very  contact  with  the  "  great, 
living,  throbbing  world  was  felt  by  the  be- 
leaguered garrison,  and  it  braced  itself  for 
the  days  of  holding  on  that  must  elapse  before 
the  allies  should  arrive  at  the  gates  of 
Peking.,, 

As  the  sun  went  down,  and  the  work  of  the 
day  slackened,  a  group  of  people  gathered 


186       Under  Marching  Orders 

about  the  bell-tower,  and  almost  unconscious- 
ly broke  forth  into  singing.  Mrs.  Game  well 
drew  near,  her  thoughts  traveling  far  beyond 
the  walls  of  Peking  to  the  country  across  the 
sea.  "As  the  strains  of  America  floated  out 
upon  the  night  air,  in  what  solemn  radiance 
dawned  visions  of  the  homeland!  Facing 
death  every  moment  of  the  day,  the  heart  had 
so  certainly  turned  to  the  home  beyond,  that 
the  home  of  this  life  had  faded,  until  it  was 
as  unreal  as  the  future  life  usually  is.  Now, 
with  a  bound  the  sweet  possibilities  of  home 
and  friends  were  brought  near."  Her  rich 
voice  sang  with  them  the  "Star  Spangled 
Banner,"  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Re- 
public," "Marching  through  Georgia,"  and 
' '  Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  the  boys  are  march- 
ing,"— those  vibrant  old  war-songs  which  she 
had  sung  in  the  gray  house  in  Davenport. 
The  singers  then  tried  "The  Marseillaise," 
and  the  French  from  their  pavilion  across 
the  way  applauded  gratefully.  With  the 
British  soldiers  they  sang  "God  Save  the 
Queen,"  with  the  Germans,  "Die  Wacht  am 
Rhein,"  and  finally  the  Russians  sang  their 
sadly  beautiful  national  hymn.  The  music  of 
that  night  would  long  haunt  the  memory  of 


The  Coming  of  the  Allies      187 

those  who  realized  that  a  common  danger 
united  all  hearts,  erasing  the  national  enmi- 
ties of  the  past. 

A  new  song  of  hope  gladdened  each  man 
and  woman  in  the  besieged  legation.  Every 
morning  brought  expectancy,  and  every  night 
the  disappointment  of  the  day  was  lost  in 
the  thought  that  even  while  they  slept,  the 
troops  might  be  drawing  near  the  city  walls. 
Ears  were  strained  to  catch  the  first  boom  of 
guns  which  might  herald  their  approach. 
1 '  Will  they  come  to-day  ?  Under  cover  of  this 
night's  darkness  will  they  enter  the  city?" 

Knowing  too  well  that  foreign  armies 
were  on  the  march,  Chinese  soldiers  made  the 
most  of  these  last  days  of  opportunity.  At- 
tacks were  made  with  a  sharpness  and  persist- 
ency such  as  belong  to  the  final  extremity  of 
warfare.  New  Mannlicher  bullets,  shot  with 
a  low  aim,  cut  through  the  air  in  hot  succes- 
sion, and  because  of  their  penetrating  quality 
riddled  barricades  as  never  before  in  the 
siege.  Mr.  Gamewell  was  kept  on  the  alert 
every  instant,  repairing  breaches  in  the  de- 
fenses, digging  countermine  ditches,  and 
everywhere  inspecting  and  strengthening  the 
fortifications.    In  the  chapel,  the  daily  labor 


188       Under  Marching  Orders 

of  preparing  food,  making  hospital  supplies, 
and  stitching  bags  innumerable,  continued 
without  respite. 

On  one  never-to-be-forgotten  night,  Au- 
gust 13,  excitement  ran  riot.  Sleep  was  far 
removed  from  the  people,  and  there  were 
many  who  did  not  even  seek  their  beds 
throughout  the  night.  Shells  crashed  through 
walls  with  a  resounding  explosion.  Bullets 
dislodged  bricks  and  tiles  from  roofs,  send- 
ing them  with  a  deadly  thud  into  the  courts 
below.  But  hearken !  What  is  that  strange, 
new  sound  away  in  the  distance?  The  " rat- 
tat-tat'  '  of  a  machine-gun  somewhere  beyond 
the  east  wall  of  Peking !  The  foreign  troops ! 
Must  it  not  be  true,  or  have  the  Chinese  ar- 
mies added  this  modern  gun  to  their  equip- 
ment !  The  courts  were  thronged  with  people, 
listening  and  questioning.  At  three  o  'clock  in 
the  morning,  Mr.  Gamewell  went  to  the  ball- 
room door  to  tell  his  wife  and  her  companions 
the  news  which  hardly  seemed  real,  so  long 
had  the  waiting  been.  The  troops  were  surely 
coming!  Immediately  Mrs.  Gamewell  arose 
and  went  outside  to  join  the  rejoicing  people. 

As  daylight  broke  over  Peking,  the  boom 
of  cannon  was  heard  to  the  east.    Nearer  and 


■ '  ■"  '■ ' :,BB-*^  ^"jf  ^  J 

■—  .  _fli*p 

Joy  at  the  Coming  of  the  Allies 


Tboops  Abeive  in  Fbont  of  the  Bell  Toweb 


The  Coming  of  the  Allies      189 

nearer  sounded  the  roar  of  heavy  guns. 
Soon  after  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  an 
American  marine  on  the  wall  sighted  the  ap- 
proaching troops,  and  word  was  swiftly  borne 
to  Sir  Claude  MacDonald.  With  a  little 
group  of  Europeans,  he  went  in  haste  to  the 
bank  of  the  canal,  where  already  a  throng  of 
Chinese  Christians  had  gathered  to  greet  the 
foreign  armies.  There  they  come,  British 
troops,  almost  running  in  their  eagerness! 
Through  the  Watergate  which  leads  into  the 
Tartar  City  under  the  American  barricade 
on  the  wall,  they  press  their  way,  until  they 
are  inside  the  legation  walls.  Sir  Claude 
MacDonald  and  the  handful  of  Europeans 
try  their  best  to  raise  a  cheer,  but  in  vain. 
Their  voices  are  not  equal  to  the  strain  of 
such  great  joy. 

Under  the  British  flag,  Sikh  soldiers  from 
India,  wearing  their  white  turbans,  led  the 
glad  march  into  the  British  Legation.  Then 
came  the  British  soldiers,  with  their  helmets, 
and  finally  the  American  Fourteenth  In- 
fantry, "our  boys,"  Mrs.  Gamewell  called 
them,  "with  their  slouch  hats  and  pitifully 
haggard  faces."  There  followed  "such  a 
riot  of  joy  as  is  seldom  seen  in  Asia,  and  such 


190        Under  Marching  Orders 

as  was  never  seen  in  the  capital  of  the  Chinese 
empire.' '  Mrs.  Gamewell  stood  with  the 
throng  of  rescued  people,  waving,  cheer- 
ing, weeping,  but  there  was  ' '  a  cold  clutch  on 
the  thrilling  gladness "  when  she  was  re- 
minded of  those  who  were  absent  from  this 
great  rejoicing,  but  whose  lives  had  been 
given  in  sacrifice  to  make  it  possible. 

The  allied  forces  of  seven  of  the  great 
nations  of  the  world  marched  into  China's 
capital  city,  August  14,  1900,  and  the  siege 
of  Peking  was  ended.  Never  in  history  had 
there  been  a  siege  so  unique!  It  was  com- 
puted that  nearly  two  million  bullets,  and 
2,900  shells  and  solid  shot  had  been  fired  at 
the  legations.  Yet  within  the  British  Com- 
pound only  one  woman  received  injury,  and 
that  on  the  day  of  the  relief.  None  of  the 
children  suffered  harm,  although  they  played 
freely  about  the  grounds.  Cases  of  measles, 
typhoid  and  scarlet  fevers,  and  even  small- 
pox developed  here  and  there  in  the  congested 
quarters,  but  there  was  never  a  suggestion 
of  an  epidemic.  Often  the  temperature  was 
100  degrees  Fahrenheit,  but  none  succumbed 
to  the  heat.  The  Chinese  Christians,  whose 
presence  was  not  wholly  welcome  at  first, 


The  Coming  of  the  Allies      191 

proved  by  their  unremitting  labor  that  with- 
out them  the  defenses  could  not  have  been 
built,  and  the  legations  held  for  seven  long 
weeks.  To  Mr.  Game  well  more  than  to  any 
other  man  was  due  the  preservation  of  the 
lives  of  the  foreigners.  This  was  the  feeling 
expressed  in  a  letter  of  appreciation  sent  him 
by  Minister  Conger.  Some  one  inquired  of 
General  Gaselee,  the  commander  of  the  allied 
troops,  his  opinion  of  the  fortifications,  and 
he  replied  that  they  were  ' i  beyond  praise ! ' ' 
But  back  of  all  the  brave,  unflinching  work 
done  by  men  and  women,  foreign  and  Chinese, 
was  the  God  who  had  responded  to  their  trust, 
and  had  led  them  through  tribulation  to 
victory. 

August  22,  a  caravan  of  army  wagons,  each 
drawn  by  four  army  mules,  stopped  at  the 
legation  gate.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gamewell 
climbed  into  one  of  these  wagons,  sat  upon 
their  trunks,  and  proceeded  thus  into  the 
streets  of  the  devastated  city,  on  through  the 
Ch'ien  gate,  into  the  southern  city,  and  thence 
through  the  east  gate  out  into  the  great  world 
beyond  the  walls  of  Peking.  As  Mrs.  Game- 
well  turned  for  a  last  look  at  the  dusty  old 
walled  city,  she  thought  with  joy  of  the  new 


192       Under  Marching  Orders 

days  to  come,  for  with  her  sure  look  ahead  she 
knew  that  out  of  the  darkness  of  these 
troubled  nights,  a  daylight,  white  and  glori- 
ous, would  dawn  for  ancient  China.  That 
she  had  had  the  chance  to  help  in  hastening 
its  coming  would  be  cause  for  eternal  grati- 
tude. At  T'ung-chou  the  travelers  went  on 
board  a  rice-boat  which  made  its  slow  way 
through  the  shallow  water  of  the  river  to 
Tientsin.  From  Tientsin  they  went  to  Na- 
gasaki, Japan,  and  thence  across  the  Pacific 
to  the  United  States.  Through  the  shining 
waters  of  the  Golden  Gate  the  great  steamer 
brought  to  her  native  shores  the  woman  who, 
twenty-nine  years  before,  had  sailed  away 
into  the  new,  untried  life  in  China.  Expe- 
riences so  rich  and  varied  had  filled  those 
years  that  she  had  almost  lived  two  lives  in 
one;  and,  as  she  came  again  to  her  girlhood 
home,  there  was  an  undying  song  of  joy  in 
her  heart,  that  to  the  bugle-call  of  duty  she 
had  risen  up  right  early  and  obeyed. 


A  NEW  WORLD 


193 


'A.  NEW  WORLD 

"The  work  of  the  world  is  done  by  few; 
God  asks  that  a  part  be  done  by  you." 

The  church  was  brightly  lighted  and,  ex- 
cept for  a  reserved  section  in  the  center,  filled 
with  people.  A  sense  of  expectancy  was  in 
the  air  and  a  thrill  of  enthusiasm  touched 
every  responsive  person.  Flags  of  different 
nations,  with  their  varied  colors  and  designs, 
suggested  a  patriotism  of  world-wide  scope. 
Elaborately  wrought  Chinese  banners  gave 
richness  and  tone  to  the  unusual  decorations, 
and  at  the  same  time  spoke  of  valued  services 
rendered  by  Americans  to  that  Far  Eastern 
land.  In  the  midst  of  flags  and  banners  hung 
the  pennant  which  had  fluttered  from  the 
masthead  of  Admiral  Dewey's  flagship  as  it 
sailed  into  Manila  Bay.  The  impulse  of  the 
place  was  outgoing,  unselfish,  broad  as  the 
bounds  of  the  earth.  In  the  audience  were 
people  who  had  come  from  all  parts  of  the 
United  States  to  counsel  together  concerning 
the  great  "unfinished  task"  of  the  Christian 

195 


196        Under  Marching  Orders 

Church.  On  the  platform  were  assembled 
those  men  and  women  who  had  gone  forth 
under  marching  orders  to  the  utmost  borders 
of  the  world. 

Gradually  the  organ  music  seemed  to  weave 
all  these  influences  into  one,  and  to  express 
in  sound  the  mighty  motive  of  service.  Sing- 
ing one  of  the  martial  hymns  of  the  Church, 
a  long  procession  of  girls,  dressed  in  white, 
marched  down  the  aisle  and  filled  the  central 
seats.  Then,  as  the  audience  settled  itself, 
and  through  the  opening  hymns  and  prayers 
became  a  unit  of  attention,  a  woman,  intense, 
alive  in  every  inch  of  her  being,  came  to  the 
front  of  the  platform  and  began  to  speak. 
Entering,  as  was  her  wont,  into  the  spirit  of 
the  gathering,  she  said  with  girlish  delight: 
1  'I  am  having  a  good  time  here  to-night, ' '  and 
then,  with  no  thought  of  herself,  swung  into 
the  story  she  had  come  to  tell.  It  was  the 
story  of  an  old-world  country  in  which  dwell 
one  fourth  of  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth;  a 
country  torn  between  the  customs  of  vast 
ages  and  the  vision  of  the  twentieth  century ; 
but  where,  out  of  the  fury  of  the  conflict,  an 
enlightenment,  calm  and  sure,  is  rising  into 
life;  a  country  where  the  followers  of  the 


A  New  World  197 

great  Christ  met  death  by  Boxer  torture 
rather  than  betray  their  trust,  and  whose 
lives  laid  down  have  proved  the  most  wonder- 
ful testimony  to  the  power  of  their  Leader. 

Step  by  step  she  led  her  hearers  until  they 
stood  with  her  in  the  presence  of  that i  *  cloud 
of  Chinese  witnesses"  and  of  the  Lord  they 
had  died  to  honor.  It  was  the  glory  of  the 
work,  the  golden  opportunity  for  usefulness 
among  a  people  ready  and  waiting,  which 
possessed  this  slender  woman,  and  conveyed 
itself  to  her  audience.  Her  voice  carried  to 
the  farthest  corner  of  the  church,  and  her 
vivid  words  made  distant  places  and  people 
near  and  real.  But  beyond  all  was  the  im- 
pression of  a  life  glowing  like  a  white  fire  with 
the  intense  joy  of  self -forgetting  service. 

Since  her  return  to  the  United  States,  Mrs. 
Gamewell  had  traveled  from  one  city  to  an- 
other addressing  large  assemblages  of  people. 
Often  a  series  of  gatherings  was  held  at 
which  she  was  the  only  woman  speaker,  tak- 
ing her  place  on  the  platform  by  the  side  of 
bishops,  United  States  Minister  Conger,  and 
other  well-known  men.  Bare  among  women 
was  her  gift  of  swaying  an  audience  by  the 
power  of  speech.    An  enthusiasm  like  that  of 


198       Under  Marching  Orders 

a  political  meeting  was  usually  produced  by 
her  message  and  her  own  animated  self.  On 
one  occasion,  when  she  was  expected  to  speak 
and  word  was  brought  to  the  assembled 
people  that  she  was  sick  and  unable  to  be 
present,  they  received  the  announcement  with 
tears  of  regret.  There  were  those  who  were 
willing  to  go  one  hundred  miles  to  hear  her 
story,  which  always  possessed  variety  and 
freshness  of  appeal.  On  one  of  her  trips  she 
was  accompanied  by  her  sister,  who,  at  each 
of  nine  conventions,  listened  to  incidents  she 
had  never  heard  before. 

Thus,  in  the  United  States  as  in  China,  Mrs. 
Game  well  was  disclosing  a  vision  of  high, 
noble  living  to  thousands  of  people.  In  the 
home  of  a  man  and  woman  newly  married, 
was  fastened  on  the  wall  a  newspaper  print, 
whose  black  lines  indistinctly  portrayed  a 
woman's  face.  Some  one  entered  the  home 
who  recognized  the  face  and  inquired  of  the 
bride  if  she  too  knew  Mrs.  Gamewell.  "No," 
was  the  reply,  "I  have  simply  heard  her 
speak,  but  I  have  felt  the  power  of  her  per- 
sonality; and  I  want  her  ideals  to  dominate 
my  home.  That  I  may  not  forget,  I  keep  her 
picture  before  me." 


A  New  World  199 

Still  another  tribute  was  paid  Mrs.  Game- 
well  in  the  midst  of  equally  unexpected  sur- 
roundings. It  was  one  winter  evening  in 
1902,  at  a  wedding  where  many  of  the  guests 
were  naval  officers.  Their  full-dress  uni- 
forms, lustrous  with  gold  lace,  made  a  strik- 
ing picture  as  they  moved  in  and  out  among 
the  throng.  A  young  officer,  having  been  pre- 
sented at  his  own  request  to  a  certain  lady, 
began  at  once  an  eager  conversation  to  which 
she  responded  with  interest.  ' 1 1  am  delighted 
to  meet  you  here,"  he  said,  "for  your  hus- 
band tells  me  that  you  are  a  friend  of  Mrs. 
Gamewell,  the  missionary  who  was  in  Peking 
during  the  Boxer  uprising."  As  she  replied 
affirmatively  he  continued:  "I  was  there  also 
in  command  of  the  marines  who  were  ordered 
up  from  the  Asiatic  squadron  to  guard  the 
American  Legation  until  the  allies  arrived. 
I  have  no  words  at  my  disposal  which  can 
convey  to  you  just  what  Mrs.  Gamewell  meant 
to  our  boys  at  that  time.  From  morning  until 
night  and  from  night  until  morning,  con- 
fronting a  fate  beside  which  death  itself  as- 
sumed the  guise  of  a  friend,  that  white-faced 
little  heroine  never  wavered.  It  seemed  as 
if  she  were  omnipresent,  and  her  bright,  ready 


200        Under  Marching  Orders 

smile  and  cheery  words  helped  us  more  than 
she  ever  knew.  I  know  fourteen  of  us  men 
in  the  service  who  will  salute  all  the  mission- 
aries with  respect  as  long  as  we  live,  in  mem- 
ory of  that  one  frail  woman  with  a  hero's 
heart. ' '  It  was  Captain  Hall,  now  advanced 
to  the  rank  of  Major,  who  could  not  miss  this 
opportunity  of  doing  honor  to  the  soldiers' 
friend. 

Even  as  he  spoke  his  appreciation  of  Mrs. 
Gamewell,  she  herself  was  beginning  to  pay 
the  price  exacted  by  those  weeks  of  hard- 
ship. It  was  not  alone  the  siege,  but  the  sum 
of  the  years  in  China,  which  was  gradually 
conquering  her  once  splendid  health.  The 
girl  who  rode  through  the  gates  of  Peking 
in  1872  had  possessed  abounding  vigor,  but 
the  dust  and  general  pollution  of  a  wholly 
insanitary  city  had  poisoned  her  system 
through  and  through.  The  wonder  was  that 
she  had  endured  so  long  and  worked  so  hard. 

As  she  felt  the  grip  of  physical  weakness, 
the  old  zest  of  battle  was  upon  her.  With 
burning  energy  she  set  herself  to  work  in  all 
the  ways  her  varied  resources  made  possible. 
In  the  home  in  New  Jersey  which  was  ever 
ready  to  welcome  her  and  her  husband  on 


A  New  World  201 

their  return  from  conferences  and  travel,  she 
spent  day  after  day  at  her  desk,  writing.  The 
Chautauquan  and  other  magazines  published 
her  lucid  accounts  of  life  in  China.  Letters 
by  the  score  went  forth  to  people,  near  and 
far,  young  and  old,  who  had  a  claim  upon  her 
interest,  and  many  were  inspired  to  more 
earnest  living  because  of  the  messages  which 
came  from  that  desk  and  that  writer.  In  one 
letter  was  found  this  characteristic  bit  of 
description :  ' '  On  the  whole,  a  tree  is  the  most 
sympathetic  object  in  nature,  not  so  awfully 
set  as  the  mountains,  not  so  fickle  and  treach- 
erous as  the  sea,  more  substantial  than  the 
clouds,  not  so  perishable  as  the  grass  and 
flowers — always  there,  steadfast  and  strong, 
with  its  shifting  lights  and  shadows,  soft  sigh- 
ing or  brisk  tossing,  or  drenched  brightness, 
seeming  to  enter  into  every  mood  of  its 
friends.  It  sighs  sympathy,  whispers  peace, 
murmurs  comfort,  waves  refreshment,  or 
shouts  exhilaratingly,  according  to  whether 
the  breeze  be  gentle  or  high,  whether  the  day 
be  bright  or  dripping. ' * 

Another  letter  carried  this  ringing  chal- 
lenge :  * '  To  young  people  amid  careless  life, 
happy  life,  times  of  unrest  and  aspiration, 


202       Under  Marching  Orders 

longings  and  yearnings  unutterable  stir  with- 
in. Trust  the  stirring  within.  It  is  the  voice 
of  God.  You  may  not  interpret  into  action 
just  as  God  intends,  but  trust  and  go  ahead. 
God  will  see  that  you  go  right.  You  may 
hear  a  voice  saying,  '  Come  up  higher,  higher, 
to  the  heights/  and  you  see  looming  before 
you  magnificent  heights,  and  it  seems  to  you 
all  glorious.  You  seek  the  way  up  and  find 
that  you  only  go  down.  A  voice  says,  '  Come 
up.'  Your  footsteps  seem  forced  downward. 
It  seems  as  if  the  voice  were  of  the  imagina- 
tion, and  that  God  mocks.  Trust,  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  because  for  you  there  is 
no  other  better  than  that  same  voice.  Trust, 
even  though  the  way  seem  down.  Trust,  and 
God  will  take  you  over  what  will  prove  to  be 
a  valley  between  you  and  the  real  upward 
way — perhaps  the  valley  of  humiliation  which 
skirts  the  mountains  of  God.  Trust,  and  you 
shall  stand  upon  heights  glorious  with  the 
glory  of  God,  so  high  above  your  own  inter- 
pretation of  God's  will  and  ways  that  your 
own  interpretation  has  sunk  out  of  sight  in 
the  prospect  that  spreads  below,  as  the  hills 
are  hidden  and  are  lost  from  the  mountain- 
top.' ' 


A  New  World  203 

Constantly  Mrs.  Gamewell's  thoughts 
reached  out  to  those  whom  she  had  left  be- 
hind in  China  and  she  made  eager  plans  to 
go  back  as  soon  as  her  health  would  allow. 
Letters,  rich  with  her  unfailing  optimism, 
traveled  to  the  compound  in  Peking,  where 
at  the  end  of  the  siege  the  " giant  tree"  alone 
survived  the  ravage  of  the  Boxers,  but  where 
now  the  work  of  rebuilding  was  going  on  with 
quickened  zeal.  In  distant  villages  in  the 
provinces  of  Chih-li  and  Shan-tung,  Bible 
women  and  girl  graduates  of  the  Peking 
school  knew  that  the  woman  who  had  spoken 
to  their  very  souls  still  remembered  and 
cared.  It  was  for  them,  these  Chinese  women 
and  girls,  that  her  life  had  been  poured  out 
in  service. 

In  the  fall  of  1906,  Mrs.  Gamewell  came 
again  to  the  home  in  New  Jersey,  and  with 
the  same  courage  with  which  she  had  taken 
up  her  work  years  before,  she  now  laid  it 
down.  For  as  many  weeks  as  she  had  lived 
behind  the  walls  of  the  British  Legation,  she 
lay  helpless  in  the  room  where  sickness,  in- 
stead of  shot  and  shell,  held  her  captive.  And 
just  as  she  had  gone  out  from  Peking  into 
the  freedom  of  the  country  she  called  home, 


204        Under  Marching  Orders 

her  real  self,  her  shining,  unconquerable 
spirit,  passed  on  to  that  country  of  perfect 
freedom,  where  new  work,  new  joy,  and  eter- 
nal vigor  awaited  her  in  the  visible  presence 
of  her  Christ ;  into  that  new  world  which  lies 
outside  the  range  of  our  sight  but  not  beyond 
the  reach  of  our  love. 

In  a  little  Chinese  village  in  the  province 
of  Shan-tung,  within  a  family  courtyard,  an 
outdoor  school  has  already  begun  its  morn- 
ing session.  Adobe  houses  enclose  the  court 
on  three  sides,  but  the  sunshine  streams  in 
unhindered  through  the  opening  at  the  south. 
Twelve  girls,  ranging  in  age  from  five  to  ten 
years,  form  an  irregular  semicircle  about  the 
teacher,  sitting  on  broad,  flat  stones,  on  in- 
verted tubs  and  baskets,  upon  any  of  the 
familiar  household  objects  which  can  be 
made  to  serve  as  a  school  bench.  Twelve 
little  wadded  figures  sway  back  and  forth,  or 
from  side  to  side,  keeping  time  to  the  rhythm 
of  the  Chinese  characters  which  they  are 
studying  aloud,  each  in  a  voice  keyed  to  a 
different  pitch.  One  girl  has  practised  her 
lesson  to  her  satisfaction,  and  comes  forward 
to  recite.     With  her  back  turned  upon  the 


A  New  World  205 

teacher,  she  races  through  the  lesson  like  a 
swift  runner  to  a  goal.  Notwithstanding  the 
speed  of  delivery,  the  teacher  is  quick  to 
follow  and  detect  the  accuracy,  and  to  com- 
mend the  pupil  for  her  perfect  recitation. 
With  beaming  face  the  child  returns  to  her 
seat,  and  applies  herself  to  the  newly- 
assigned  task.  A  wee  girl,  scarcely  more  than 
a  baby,  leans  against  the  teacher's  knee,  and 
timidly  recites  her  lesson,  while  her  older 
sister  stands  by  her  side,  listening  with  intent 
face,  as  if  the  small  sister's  success  were  of 
greater  moment  than  her  own.  By  and  by 
two  mothers,  mere  girls  in  years,  but  old 
with  care,  come  to  visit  school,  finding  the 
tidy  court  a  restful  change  from  their 
crowded,  disorderly  homes.  As  they  enter, 
the  twelve  pupils  rise,  and  one  by  one  give 
the  guests  a  ch'ing-an  (courtesy).  An  older 
girl  strays  in  from  the  street,  and  half- 
bewildered,  half -wistful,  watches  the  exer- 
cises of  the  school,  which  are  so  entirely 
strange  to  her.  The  shoe  upon  which  she  is 
supposed  to  work  lies  forgotten  in  her  hands, 
as  she  thinks  new,  unfamiliar  thoughts.  She 
had  not  heard  early  enough  of  the  religion 
which  brings  enlightenment  to  the  desi)ised 


206       Under  Marching  Orders 

girl,  and  thus  her  childhood  chance  of  study 
had  gone. 

But  how  did  this  Christian  school  find  its 
existence  in  the  distant  pagan  village,  and 
who  is  the  dignified,  intelligent-faced  teacher  ? 
Its  history  traces  directly  back  through  the 
years  to  the  little  struggling  school  for  girls 
which  Mary  Porter  opened  in  the  compound 
in  Peking,  in  1872.-  In  the  life  of  Clara  Wang, 
one  of  the  first  pupils  in  that  school,  there 
was  born  a  great  purpose  because  of  contact 
with  the  young  American  teacher.  After  her 
marriage  she  went  back  to  her  home  in  An- 
chia-chuang,  determined  to  live  out  her 
Christian  ideals  of  womanhood  at  whatever 
cost.  Upon  Mrs.  GamewelPs  suggestion,  she 
taught  a  girls '  boarding  school,  and  later  the 
day-school  on  her  own  door-steps.  Already 
some  of  her  pupils,  even  her  daughter,  have 
become  teachers,  and  many  others  have  mar- 
ried and  are  creating  real  Christian  homes  in 
the  midst  of  ignorant  heathen  villages.  Thus 
scores,  hundreds  of  lives  have  been  made 
strong  and  useful,  because  one  woman  dared 
be  true  to  her  dream  of  duty,  giving  up  home 
and  ease  to  work  for  these  Chinese  girls. 

Even  in  the  remote  inland  city  of  Chung- 


The  Maky  Portep  Gamewell  School  for  Girls,  Peking 


B^flH^Ssfil    *B 

*i^^''W&^L 

!  W  ' 

i 

Girls  of  the  Mary  Porter  Gamewell  School   (UrPER  Row) 


A  New  World  207 

ch'ing,  reached  by  the  long,  perilous  trail  of 
the  Yang-tzfi,  this  one  life  has  left  its  impress. 
The  work  which  was  shattered  and  broken 
that  July  night  in  1886,  was  reestablished  a 
year  or  two  later  and  has  grown  in  power 
and  beauty  from  year  to  year.  The  property 
on  the  great  road,  destroyed  by  the  mob,  is 
now  replaced  by  a  splendid  hospital  building, 
scarcely  surpassed  in  China  for  size  and 
equipment,  by  a  boys'  school,  a  Bible  train- 
ing school,  a  church,  and  the  homes  in  which 
dwell  the  seventeen  missionaries  from  Amer- 
ica. The  girls'  boarding-school  in  which 
Mrs.  Game  well  taught  has  been  removed  to 
Ch'eng-tu,  the  capital  city,  because  it  has 
larger  opportunity  there  for  reaching  the 
girls  of  the  province.  There  are  over  one 
thousand  Christians  in  the  district  of  which 
Chung-ch'ing  is  the  center,  and  everywhere 
the  people  welcome  the  foreigner  whom  once 
they  scorned  and  derided. 

But  what  of  Peking,  the  mysterious  old 
walled  city,  still  dusty  and  dirty,  but  yet  alive, 
alert,  progressive,  and  just  as  attractive  as 
ever?  It  was  in  the  heart  of  its  varied  activ- 
ity, within  the  compound  in  Filial  Piety  Lane, 
that  Mrs.  Game  well  spent  almost  half  the 


208       Under  Marching  Orders 

years  of  her  life.  What  is  the  harvest  of 
those  years  of  toil,  the  ingathering  from  that 
life  of  radiant  purpose?  On  the  train  from 
Tientsin  a  group  of  Chinese  girls  are  journey- 
ing toward  Peking,  laughing  and  chatting 
together  exactly  like  boarding-school  girls  in 
America  returning  for  the  fall  term.  These 
are  the  girls  of  New  China  on  their  way  to 
the  Peking  Girls '  School,  traveling  by  a  west- 
ern railway  instead  of  the  Oriental  wheel- 
barrow of  the  days  of  Sarah  Wang,  and  in 
companies  of  fifty,  sixty,  or  one  hundred, 
instead  of  the  shy,  solitary  girl  who  ventured 
in  from  the  streets,  in  1872.  At  the  Peking 
station  in  the  Southern  City,  they  leave 
the  train,  and  step  into  jinrikishas,  or 
possibly  Peking  carts,  to  be  borne  with 
careless  ease  through  the  Hata  gate,  along 
the  broad  street  to  the  compound  of  the 
Methodist  mission.  Passing  through  the 
great  gate  and  hastening  along  the  central 
highway  in  sight  of  the  homes  of  the  mission- 
aries, the  new  Asbury  Church,  the  hospital 
and  the  boys'  school,  they  pause  in  front  of 
a  three-storied  brick  building — the  Mary 
Porter  Gamewell  School.  Two  hundred  and 
forty-four  girl  students  are  reassembling  for 


A  New  World  209 

the  new  year  of  school  and  they  include  in 
their  number  all  classes  of  society,  even  the 
great-great-niece  of  Li  Hung-chang,  the  most 
renowned  statesman  China  has  yet  produced. 
The  school  has  recently  been  made  a  part  of 
the  North  China  Educational  Union,  which 
means  that  it  has  a  recognized  academic 
standing,  and  its  graduates  can  go  straight 
on  to  college  and  medical  school. 

The  school  which  Mary  Porter  Gamewell 
founded  in  those  pioneer  years,  has  been 
the  forerunner  of  a  great  educational  move- 
ment for  girls,  promoted  by  the  Chinese 
government  itself.  After  the  empress  dow- 
ager returned  to  the  Dragon  Throne,  in  the 
fall  of  1900,  and  entered  upon  her  career  of 
reform,  schools  for  girls  were  established 
in  all  parts  of  the  royal  province,  in  each  of 
which  the  unbinding  of  the  feet  was  the  con- 
dition of  entrance.  Thus  that  daring  decision 
of  the  two  young  women  in  the  sitting-room 
of  the  "Long  Home"  thirty-seven  years  ago 
has  led  directly  to  an  effort  among  the 
Chinese  themselves  for  the  freedom  of 
women.  Schools,  schools,  everywhere,  pro- 
claim the  new  day  in  China.  In  a  single 
province  the  viceroy  founded  over  five  thou- 


210        Under  Marching  Orders 

sand  schools  for  boys  and  girls  within  the 
space  of  a  few  years !  Teachers !  Who  shall 
say  teachers  are  not  needed  for  this  awaken- 
ing multitude  of  pupils  1  In  one  year  fifteen 
thousand  young  men  were  studying  in  Japan, 
and  four  or  five  thousand  more  were  students 
in  the  universities  of  Europe  and  America. 

The  dowager  empress  is  no  longer  the 
dominant  figure  in  Chinese  affairs.  In  the 
fall  of  1908  there  were  two  sudden  and  inex- 
plicable deaths  in  the  palace  within  the  For- 
bidden City,  and  the  empress  dowager  and 
the  deposed  emperor,  Kuang  Hsu,  lay  in 
royal  state,  while  their  nation  donned  the 
white  garb  of  mourning.  To-day,  Prince 
Chun,  the  new  regent  and  older  brother  of 
Kuang  Hsu,  leads  along  the  broad  road  of 
progress  and  enlightenment. 

When  ten  thousand  Chinese  Christians  laid  ? 
down  their  lives  rather  than  deny  their  Lord, 
the  people  wonderingly  asked :  "What  is  this 
religion  for  which  men  are  ready  to  die?" 
Thus  hosts  of  Chinese  faces  are  turned  in- 
quiringly and  even  wistfully  toward  the  faith 
which  has  made  men  ready  to  die  for  the 
sake  of  the  love  they  bear  their  Leader.  No 
wonder  that  those  who  know  China  and  who 


A  New  World  211 

know  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ  declare  that 
the  opportunity  to-day  is  the  greatest  which 
has  been  offered  to  the  Christian  Church 
since  the  days  of  Martin  Luther,  if  not  since 
the  lifetime  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 

The  China  of  this  first  decade  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  is  literally  a  new  world;  "old 
things  are  passed  away :  behold,  all  things  are 
become  new."  And  Mary  Porter  Gamewell 
stands  in  the  front  rank  of  those  men  and 
women  who  have  helped  bring  about  this 
resurrection  day  in  the  most  ancient  empire 
of  the  world. 


INDEX 


213 


INDEX 


Alleghany  Mountains,  19 

Allied  Forces,  145,  184 

Amazon  River,  74 

Ament,  Dr.,  181 

America,  210 

American  Bible  Society,  121 

American, 

missionaries,  37,  48,  69,  92, 

103,  207; 
soldiers,  see  United  States, 

military     forces     during 

siege  of  Peking 
Americans,  175 
Ancestral,  tablets,  63; 

worship,  63 
An-chia-chuang,   61,  62,  65, 

206 
Arsenal  on  Rock  Island,  near 

Davenport,  21 
Asbury  Church,  Peking,  109, 

133,  159,  208 

Babies,  burial  of  Chinese,  46; 
putting  in  door  of  mis- 
sion compound,  79,  80 
Barricades,    134,    135,     167- 

171,  178,  179 
"Betsey,"  international  can- 
non, 181 
Bible, 

promises  of    during  siege, 

184; 
training  school,  207; 
women,  53,  73,  102,  203 


Bicycle  used  by  Mr.  Game- 
well,  166 
Birds,  Chinese,  46,  47 
Boats,  Chinese,  10,  58,  59,  75, 

76 
Boxers,   the,    126-133,    136- 

139,  148,  183,  197,  203; 
united       with       imperial 

troops,  145,  155 
Boys'  schools,  38,  102,  207, 

208 
Bridge  of  Boats,  11,65 
British,    consuls    at    Chung- 

ch'ing  and  Tientsin,  91, 

92,  185; 
Legation  at  Peking,  place 

of  refuge  during   siege, 

156-190; 
military  forces  during  siege 

of    Peking,     179,     184, 

189 
Brown,  Miss  Maria,  30,   33, 

48; 
married  to  the  Rev.  George 

R.  Davis,  72 
Buddhist  temples,  122,  126 
Bullets,  shells,  and  solid  shot 

during   siege,   179,   180, 

190 

Camel  trains,  33,  114 
Camps  of  Union  soldiers,  near 

Davenport,  21 
Canada,  28,  74 


215 


216 


Index 


Cards,   as  an   attraction   to 
Peking     Sunday-school, 
103-105 
Carts,    Chinese,    13,    51-53, 

114,  157,  159 
Charms  used  by  Boxers,  127 
Chautauquan,  the,  201 
Ch'eng-tu,  207 
Chicago    and    Rock    Island 

Railroad,  20 
Chih-li,  53,  203 
Ch'in    or    Great    Pure    Dy- 
nasty, 116 
China,  3,  74; 

acts  with   Boxers  to   de- 
stroy foreigners,  148; 
first  experiences  in,  3-15; 
relative  population  of,  28; 
wonderful      changes      in, 
through    mission    influ- 
ence, 209-211 
China  in  Convulsion,  xi 
"China's  Girdle,"  74 
"China's  Sorrow,"  58 
Chinese, 

ambassador    in    Washing- 
ton, 183; 
birds,  46,  47; 
carts,  13,  51-53; 
Christians,  see  Christians, 

Chinese; 
City,  in  Peking,  177; 
curiosity  concerning  Occi- 
dental people,  11,  12; 
fear    of    foreigners   harm- 
ing their  children,  38, 45, 
46; 
house-boats,  10; 


imperial       troops       used 
against  foreigners,    148, 
155,  160-187; 
rivers,  8-10,  58; 
roads,  4; 
schools  inspired  by  mission 

work,  209,  210; 
students  in  Japan,  Europe, 
and  America,  210 
Ch'iu-fu,  64,  65 
Cho-chou,  128 
Christ,  see  Jesus  Christ 
Christians,   Chinese,   56,    57, 
63; 
in  siege  of  Peking,  x,  135- 
138,  146-160,  184,  189, 
190; 
martyrs  among,  128,  138, 
197,  210 
Chun,  Prince,  210 
Chung-ch'ing,  72-75,  78,  83, 

91-97,  207 
Civil  War,  20-23,  146,  180 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  114 
Committees  created  for  siege 

days,  164 
Compounds,  mission,  33,  37, 

45,  65,  69,  71, 133-150 
Confucianism,  62,  92 
Confucius,  64 

Conger,  E.  H.,  135,  137,  148, 
197; 
letters  from,  144,  191 ; 
Washington  cablegram, 
183,  184 
Conger,  Mrs.,  171 
Congregational     mission     at 
Tung-chou,  136 


Index 


217 


Cornell  University,  70 
Cushman,  Miss  Clara  M.,  xi 

Davenport,  Iowa,  20-29 
Davis,  Rev.  George  R.,  72 
Diffendorfer,  Mr.  R.  E.,  xi 
Donkeys,  riding  of,  3-5 
Dragon,  Festival,  85; 

Throne,  116,  209 
Dust,  evil  of  in  China,  5,  12, 
14,  37,  46 

Empress  dowager,   116-129, 
209,  210; 
daughter     of    a    Manchu 

soldier,  117; 
early  becomes  empress,  117; 
later  is  sole  regent,  118; 
receives  gift  of  New  Testa- 
ment, 121; 
supplants  Kuang  Hsu,  124; 
tries  to   destroy   the  for- 
eigners, 125, 126,129,175; 
very  sudden  death,  210 
Europe,  210 
Europeans,  175,  189 

"Face,"  90 

Filial  Piety  Lane,  37,  47,  65, 

105,  150 
Fire,  destructive  use  of  by 
Chinese    in    siege,    138, 
139,  176,  177 
Flags,  of  China,  ix,  x; 
of  Europe,  145; 
of  Great  Britain,  189; 
of  Japan,  145; 
of  the  Church,  ix,  x,  xii; 


of   United   States,    ix,   x, 

145,  195 
Foochow,  9 
Food    and    grain    found    in 

Legation  Street,  165, 166 
Foot-binding,  not  permitted 

in  Peking  girls'   school, 

34,  35; 
influence  of  the  decision, 
•    35,  36,  41-44,  209 
Forbidden  City,  114,115, 175, 

210 
"Foreign  devils,"  expression 

used  by  Chinese,  38,  46, 

59,  84,  139 
Foreigners,   danger  and  de- 
liverance of,  in  Peking, 

125-191 
Fortification     work     during 

siege,  133-135,  165-171 
French  military  forces  during 

siege  of  Peking,  184 
Fu,  the,  see  Su  Wang  Fu,  the 

Gamewell,  Frank  D.,  x,  70, 

84,    85,    109,    137,    144, 

163,  188; 
education,  70,  71; 
enters  the  China  field,  71 ; 
marriage,  72; 
proceeds  to  Chung-ch'ing 

and     works      in     West 

China,  72-96; 
riot     compels     retirement 

from  West  China,  97; 
service  in  home  field  and 

Peking  University,  101, 

102; 


218 


Index 


superintends  fortifications 
during  siege  of  Peking, 
135,  164-169; 

tributes  from  Minister  Con- 
ger and  General  Gaselee, 
191; 

voyage     to     the    United 

States,  192 

Gamewell,  John  M.,  70 

Gamewell,    Mary  Porter,   x, 

80,    83,    123,    135,    138, 

146,  162,  163,  180,  188; 

childhood  and  education, 
19-27; 

conversion,  26; 

Grandview  Academy, 
teaching,  27,  28; 

heeds  call  to  mission  work, 

28,  29; 

journey  to  Peking,  3-15, 

29,  30;  map,  7; 
letters,  48,  78,  84, 104, 106- 

109,  201-203; 

main  service  as  a  mission- 
ary teacher,  38; 

makes  courageous  her  pu- 
pils and  Bible  women, 
39-44; 

marriage  to  Frank  D. 
Gamewell  and  journey  to 
West  China,  72; 

memorial  school,  see  Mary 
Porter  Gamewell  School; 

notes  and  exposes  the  dis- 
honesty of  the  builders, 
44,45; 

prefers  city  wall  for  her 
walks,  46,  47; 


record  trip  to  An-chia- 
chuang,  51-65;  map,  61; 

risks  life  to  restrain  the 
mob  at  Chung-ch'ing, 
85-91; 

return  visit  to  United 
States,  97-102; 

secures  by  letter  funds  for 
new  Peking  church,  106- 
110; 

Sunday-school  work,  28, 
103-110; 

sympathy  and  thoughtful 
service  during  siege  days, 
140-142,  151,  170-172, 
186,  189,  190,  199,  200; 

uniforms  made  for  sol- 
diers, 142-144; 

varied  activity  in  home 
field,  192-203; 

work  finished,  promotion, 
and  enduring  influence, 
203-211 
Gaselee,  General,  191 
Gates,  of  city,   13,  14,  114, 
138-140; 

of  compound,  37,  47,  135, 
141,  150; 

of  British   Legation,    167, 
168 
German  military  forces  dur- 
ing siege  of  Peking,  184 
Girls,  American,  19-26; 

Chinese,  28,  35-38 
Girls'  schools,  in  Peking,  34, 
35,38,39,147,208; 

in  Shan-tung,  204-206; 

in  West  China,  83,  207 


Index 


219 


Glass,  Mrs.  Charles  D.,  x 

God,  28,  43; 

the  real  protection  in  the 
siege,  156,  182,  191 

Golden  Gate,  the,  30,  192 

Grandview  Academy,  27 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  26 

Great  Wall,  137 

Greek  Church,  171 

Greenville,  tune  of,  56 

Gun,  taken  from  Mrs.  Game- 
well  at  Chung-ch'ing,  87- 
90 

Gymnastic  apparatus,  24 

Hall,  Captain,  135,  140,  150, 
200 

Hankow,  75 

Hanlin  library,  176 

Hata  gate,  Peking,  5, 150,  208 

Homesickness,  12,  48 

Hospital,  mission,  83,  84; 
temporary,    during    siege, 
182 

House-boats,  10 

Houses,  Chinese,  36,  79 

Hsien  Feng,  117 

Hsing-chi,  54 

Hui  An,  39,  40 

Hu-nan,  165 

Hymns    sung,    by    Chinese 
Christians,  56,  57; 
by  those  besieged  in  Pe- 
king, 147,  183 

I'chang,  75-78,  97 
Imperial  City,  113,  181 
Inland  Sea,  8 


Italian  military  forces  during 
siege  of  Peking,  158,  181 

James,  Prof.,  156 
Japan,  8 
Japanese,  175; 

consul  at  Tientsin,  184; 
military    forces    during 
siege  of  Peking,  158, 182, 
184; 
minister  in  Peking,  184 
Jesus  Christ,  26,  28,  35,  43, 
57,  62,  64,  80,  204,  210, 
211 
Jewell,  Mrs.,  160 
Jewett,  Miss  Sophie,  xi 
Jinrikishas,  171,  208 

Kalgan,  137 

Kang  or  bed,  55 

Ketteler,   Baron     von,    148, 

149 
Kipling,  Mr.,  123 
Kuang  Hsu,  118-124; 

love  of  new  things,   119, 

120; 
many    progressive    steps, 

120-122; 
obtains  copy  of  Bible,  121; 
sudden  death,  210 
Kublai  Khan,  114 

Lang-fang,  137 
Lee,  Robert  E.,  26 
Legation,  Chapel,   158,   160, 

182; 
Street,  150,  151,  160,  165, 

167 


220 


Index 


Life  of  Mary  Porter  Game- 
well,  xi 
Li  Hung-chang,  209 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  22,  26 
Lion,  of  cast  iron,  55 
London  Times,  the,  148 
"Long  Home,"  the  residence 
of  Mary  Porter  in  Pe- 
king, 33,  35,  36,  48,  209 

MacDonald,  Lady,  162,  163, 

168,  169 
MacDonald,  Sir  Claude,  164, 

176,  185,  189; 
gives    Mr.    Gamewell    full 

authority    in    fortifying 

Legation,  164 
Machine-gun,  sound  of,  188 
Magistrates,  Chinese,  88-97 
Manchu   Tartars,    the   royal 

family  of  China,  116 
Mary  Porter  Gamewell 

School,  208 
McCalla,  Captain,   137,   145, 

163 
Meng-ts'un,  55 
Methodist,  mission,  136,  146, 

208; 
street  chapel  destroyed,  138 
Meyers,  Captain,  178,  179 
Mills   for  grinding  grain  in 

siege,  165 
Mission  work, 

call  to,  28,  29,  71,  192; 
heroism  of,  30,  53,  80,  85- 

91,  93,  95-97,  141,  147, 

150,  151,  163,  180,  182, 

199,  200; 


value  of,  38-48,  101-110, 
191-211 
Mississippi  River,  20,  74; 

first  bridge  across,  20 
Mitchell,    American   gunner, 

181 
Mongolians,  114 
Mongol  Market,  168 
Moon-gate,  the,  37 
Morrison,  Dr.,  148,  156 
Mule  litters,  114 

Nagasaki,  Japan,  192 

Nanking,  75 

New  England,  30,  103 

New  Jersey,  200,  203 

New  York,  8,  57 

North     China     Educational 

Union,  209 
Northrup,  Miss  Elizabeth,  xi 

Odors,    unpleasant,    in    Pe- 
king, 46 

Packard,  Mrs.  M.  C,  xi 
Palace  buildings  and  courts, 

Peking,  116,  175,  210 
Pao-ting  fu,  128 
Pei  Ho,  the,  8,  9,  145 
Peking,  5,  12-15,  29,  33,  36, 
46,  51,  65,  71,  97,  102,' 
113-116; 
diagram  of,  115; 
girls'  school  in,  34,  35,  38- 

41,46,208,  209; 
remote    from    water    and 

walled,  155; 
siege     of,    see    Siege    of 
Peking 


Index 


221 


Pigeons,    whistles    attached 

to,  47 
Polytechnic  Institute,  Troy, 

New  York,  70 
Porter,  Mary,  see  Gamewell, 

Mary  Porter 
Prayer,  27,  39,  40,  48,   56, 

147,  170 

Railway  from  Tientsin  to 
Peking,  120,  155 

Rivers,  Chinese,  features  of, 
9-11,  58,  74 

Roman  Catholic,  cathedrals 
destroyed  at  Chung- 
ch'ing  and  Peking,  92, 
138; 
Christians  in  siege  of  Pe- 
king, 156,  157 

Russian  military  forces  dur- 
ing siege  of  Peking,  179, 
184 

Sand-bags    for    fortification 

work,  169-171 
San  Francisco,  29 
Schools,  mission,  34,  35,  38, 

39,  see  also  Girls*  schools 
Sedan-chairs,  93-97,  114 
Shang-chia-chai,  56 
Shanghai,  8,  9,  74 
Shan-tung,  41,  42,  53,  60,  65, 

126,  203,  204 
Sharpshooters,  Chinese,  178, 

180 
Sherman,  William  T.,  26 
Siege  of  Peking,  x,  xi,  151- 

191 


Smith,  Arthur  H.,    xi,    161, 
181 

Songs,  at  Davenport,  22; 
by  Chinese  children,  110; 
during  siege  of  Peking,  186 

Souls,  Chinese  belief  concern- 
ing, 63 

South  America,  74 

Squiers,  Mrs.,  157 

St.  Lawrence  River,  74 

Sunday-school     in     Peking, 
103-110 

Su,  Prince,  156 

Su  Wang  Fu,  the,  156-160, 
168 

Taku,  144,  155; 

forts  taken,  144,  145 
Tartar  city,  113-116,  177 
Temples,  115,  139 
Tibet,  58,  73,  74 
Tientsin,  8-10,  54,  104,  144, 

148,  155,  184,  185,  192 
Trackers  on   the    Yang-tzu, 

77 
Trees    not    easily    seen    in 

Chinese  cities,  47 
Ts'ang-chou,  55 
T'ung  Chih,  117 
Tuttle,  Dr.,  xi 
T'ung-chou,  5,  10,  192 
Tzu  Hsi,    118-124,   see  also 

Empress  dowager 

United  States,  3,  28,  57,  74, 
97,  195; 
Legation,    144,    157,    177, 
199; 


222 


Index 


military  forces  during 
siege  of  Peking,  135, 136, 
178,  179,  184,  189; 

minister  in  Peking,  135, 
see  also  Conger,  E.  H.; 

treatment  of  Chinese,  92 
University  of  Peking,  122 

Walls,  of  Chinese  cities,  12, 
14,  46,  47,  78,  79,  187; 
of  compounds,  37,  79; 
of  houses,  14,  15,  47; 
of  legations,  162, 167, 176- 
180,  189 
Wang,  Clara  and  Sarah,  40- 
44,  62,  206,  208; 
Mrs.,  41,  42,  53,  61-65, 102 
War-songs,  22,  186 


Wellesley  College,  xi 

Wells  in  British  Legation,  166 

West  China  mission  work,  73, 
83,  84,  206,  207 

Wheelbarrows,  Chinese    use 
of,  4,  114; 
Mrs.  Wang's  journey,  41 

Women,  American,  at  Daven- 
port in  war  times,  22,  23; 
record  trip  as  missionaries 
in  China,  51-53 

Women,  Chinese,  41,  42,  52 

Yamen  of  magistrate,  93-97 
Yang  Ssu,  65 
Yang-tzu,  the,  74-78 
Yellow  River,  58,  65 
Yokohama  Bay,  8 


Forward  Mission  Study  Courses 


"  Anywhere,  provided  it  be  forward." — David  Living* 
stone." 


Prepared  under  the  direction  of  the 
YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

OF  THE   UNITED    STATES   AND    CANADA 

Editorial  Committee:  T.  H.  P.  Sailer,  Chairman 
A.  E.  Armstrong,  T.  B.  Ray,  H.  B.  Grose,  S.  Earl  Tay- 
lor, J.  E.  McAfee,  C.  R.  Watson,  John  W.  Wood,  L.  B, 
Wolf. 

The  forward  mission  study  courses  are  an  outgrowth  of 
a  conference  of  leaders  in  young  people's  mission  work, 
held  in  New  York  City,  December,  1901.  To  meet  the 
need  that  was  manifested  at  that  conference  for  mission 
study  text-books  suitable  for  young  people,  two  of  the 
delegates,  Professor  Amos  R.  Wells,  of  the  United  Society 
of  Christian  Endeavor,  and  Mr.  S.  Earl  Taylor,  Chairman 
of  the  General  Missionary  Committee  of  the  Epworth 
League,  projected  the  Forward  Mission  Study  Courses. 
These  courses  have  been  officially  adopted  by  the  Young 
People's  Missionary  Movement,  and  are  now  under  the 
immediate  direction  of  the  Editorial  Committee  of  the 
Movement.  The  books  of  the  Movement  are  now  being 
used  by  more  than  forty  home  and  foreign  mission  boards 
and  societies  of  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

The  aim  is  to  publish  a  series  of  text-books  covering 
the  various  home  and  foreign  mission  fields  and  written 


by  leading  authorities.     The  entire  series  when  completed 
will  comprise  perhaps  as  many  as  forty  text-books. 

The  following  text-books  having  a  sale  of  nearly 
600,000  have  been  published: 

i.  The  Price  of  Africa.  (Biographical.)  By  S.  Earl 
Taylor. 

2.  Into  All  the  World.  A  general  survey  of  missions. 
By  Amos  R.  Wells. 

3.  Princely  Men  in  the  Heavenly  Kingdom.  (Bio- 
graphical.)    By  Harlan  P.  Beach. 

4.  Sunrise  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom.  A  study  of 
Japan.     By  John  H.  De  Forest. 

5.  Heroes  of  the  Cross  in  America.  Home  Missions. 
(Biographical.)     By  Don  O.  Shelton. 

6.  Daybreak  in  the  Dark  Continent.  A  study  of  Af- 
rica.    By  Wilson  S.  Naylor. 

7.  The  Christian  Conquest  of  India.  A  study  of 
India.     By  James  M.  Thoburn. 

8.  Aliens  or  Americans?  A  study  of  Immigration. 
By  Howard  B.  Grose. 

9.  The  Uplift  of  China.  A  study  of  China.  By 
Arthur  H.  Smith. 

10.  The  Challenge  of  the  City.  A  study  of  the  City. 
By  Josiah  Strong. 

11.  The  "Why  and  How  of  Foreign  Missions.  A 
study  of  the  relation  of  the  home  Church  to  the  foreign 
missionary  enterprise.     By  Arthur  J.  Brown. 

12.  The  Moslem  World.  A  study  of  the  Moham- 
medan World.     By  Samuel  M.  Zwemer. 

13.  The  Frontier.  A  study  of  the  New  West.  By 
Ward  Piatt. 

14.  South  America :  Its  Missionary  Problems.  A 
study  of  South  America.     By  Thomas  B.  Neely. 

15.  The  Upward  Path :  The  Evolution  of  a  Race.  A 
study  of  the  Negro.     By  Mary  Helm. 

x6.  Korea  in  Transition.  A  study  of  Korea.  By 
James  S.  Gale. 


In  addition  to  these  courses,  the  following  have  been 
published  especially  for  use  among  younger  persons: 

i.  Uganda's  White  Man  of  Work.  The  story  of  Alex- 
ander Mackay  of  Africa.     By  Sophia  Lyon  Fans. 

2.  Servants  of  the  King.  A  series  of  eleven  sketches 
of  famous  home  and  foreign  missionaries.  By  Robert  E. 
Speer. 

3.  Under  Marching  Orders.  The  Story  of  Mary  Por- 
ter Gamewell  of  China.     By  Ethel  Daniels  Hubbard. 

These  books  are  published  by  mutual  arrangement 
among  the  home  and  foreign  mission  boards,  to  whom 
all  orders  should  be  addressed.  They  are  bound  uni- 
formly and  are  sold  at  50  cents,  in  cloth,  and  35  cents, 
in  paper;  postage,  8  cents  extra. 


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